Twisted
by ThatsaDot
Summary: Naruto and Hinata switch their core personality traits. How would the Ninja world change, with a shyer Naruto and a more outgoing Hinata? Angst, Strong Language, OFC Characters, Action, more to be added as I think of them.
1. Beginning

Twisted

In amidst of the Fire Country sat a fairly large hidden village known as Konoha. Digging deeper into Konoha, a young boy of 12 lived in a small apartment. This young boy was known as Uzumaki Naruto. The boy sat at the table in his small one room apartment, quietly devouring his favorite food, ramen. He was dressed in a deep black t-shirt with a light red spiral printed upon the front, the mark of the Uzumaki clan. His pants also consisted of a deep black color, all in attempted to blend into the background. Sadly this was ill effort, since the black coloring of his clothes seemed to make his blue eyes and golden hair pop out. Another feature that seemed to attract attention was three scar-like whiskers upon both his cheeks.

He stood from the table, ignoring the mess around the room, slipped on his dark blue sandals and left his dingy apartment. He made an effort to keep his footsteps silent and his head facing straight ahead. He found out a long time ago, that less people noticed him when he kept his head up and it kept him from running into people. Still this did not mean he went unnoticed. He was determined to ignore the whispered curt remarks from the villagers around him as he made his way to the Ninja Academy.

He slipped into the classroom filled with his peers and sat quietly in the back of the half-circled placed desks, which faced frontward towards a single sensei in the front of the room, each desk sat three students. Naruto had sat himself between two boys, Nara Shikamaru and Aburame Shino. Naruto had placed himself there on purpose, for both boys rarely ever spoke to him. Shikamaru preferred to sleep through classes and Shino never seemed to speak unless spoken to. Naruto swiftly refocus on the single sensei, Umino Iruka, as he called order to the classroom.

"Good morning class, today is the day for the final exams to become Genin. To graduate from the academy the required jutsu to perform is the Bunshin no Jutsu. Listen carefully for your name to be called and enter the room next door." Iruka then called the first student and walked out with them. Naruto slumped in his chair, the Bunshin no Jutsu, was his _worse jutsu_. He did a quick scan of the room, seeing that no one else was visibly worried about the upcoming exam. So he put on a neutral face on and tried to think of ways to pass the exam.

Slowly one by one, each student was called into the exam. Naruto very deep in thought almost missed his name being called. He promptly and soundlessly left the classroom and entered the exam room. The room was emptied of all desks but one two seater desk, where both Iruka and another sensei, Mizuki sat. In front of them upon the desk, were the blue forehead protectors with the mark of Konoha upon them. Naruto hesitantly walked in front of the desk and looked towards sanseis. Iruka smiled encouragingly at the boy while Mizuki kept neutral friendly face upon the boy. Naruto quickly put on a falsely determined face and molded some of his charka and performed the seals required for the jutsu.

A puff smoke appeared next to Naruto and all three of them had different reactions to the sickly cloned Naruto that appeared on the floor unable to even sit up. Iruka had a disappointed frown while Mizuki showed no outward reaction to the failure of the jutsu. Naruto immediately looked down at his feet and blushed, _'I failed'_.

"Fail." Iruka spoke with clarity. Then to both Naruto and Iruka shock, Mizuki spoke up,

"We could pass him, he did create a clone." Naruto looked up with hopefulness.

"No way Mizuki! Everyone else created two clones while Naruto only created one clone on top of that, a useless one. I cannot let him pass." Naruto looked back down at his shoes and clenched his teeth in anger. Of course, they wouldn't let _him_ pass.

Without looking back up, he immediately left the room, and went outside the school building. He almost ran into peers of his standing in front of the door, all chatting cheerfully with their parents. Naruto, knowing that it be bluntly obvious that he didn't pass, kept his head down and walked passed the grounds towards a tree a few feet away from the crowd. Two ropes were tied to a huge branch of the tree; the two ropes were then attached to a wooden board making it into a makeshift swing. Naruto quietly sat down on the swing, gloomily looking out at the crowd of his peers and their parents. He could clearly hear a few of the parents, one man spoke loudly to his son about the wonderful job the boy had done. There were two more voices that belong to women that Naruto could also hear. They were quieter, but still very loud to him.

"Hey it's that kid…" spoke one woman.

"Yeah him... I heard he's the only one to fail" the other woman sneered.

"I am glad; he shouldn't become a shinobi, since he-"

"Shh! We're not supposed to talk about that!"

The women quieted down after that, and Naruto clasped his fists around the ropes of the swing, _'Why do they hate me?'_ he thought miserably and fled the daunting scene in front of him. He didn't notice the Hokage speaking to Iruka nor a shadow following him.

' _What's so wrong about me? I've never hurt anyone! If I could just become a ninja, I could get the village to finally recognize me for who I am! I am not a demon, I am not!'_ Naruto thought angrily rubbing his eyes to hide the tears, _'But I can't even perform- no I can't think like that! I just have to keep practicing!'_

"Naruto." Naruto jumped and looked behind him to see Mizuki. The man's long white-silver hair blew lightly in the gentle wind, and his green eyes set in concern for the young boy. The man was dressed in the normal ninja clothes; a green vest that was zipped up with an orange spiral, which looked a lot like the Uzumaki family crest, on the back of it. Underneath the vest was a deep black long sleeve shirt marked on both shoulder blades with the same symbol and below that was pants of the same color. He also had white bandages wrapped around his ankles and feet where his pants did not cover and wore black sandals upon his feet. And on top of his head was one of the blue forehead protectors, though the one Mizuki wore covered half his hair.

"M-mizuki-sensei?" Naruto stuttered out with a rough voice, he cleared his voice and continued with a faint stutter, "C-can I help you?"

Mizuki smiled gently, "I actually wanted to talk to you, Naruto. How about you follow me?" Naruto frown slightly, but saw no harm in talking with his teacher and nodded.

In a short form, both teacher and student were sat on a balcony that looked out upon the large village. Naruto listened quietly, staring at the mountains and forests that surrounded the community, listening to Mizuki explain how Iruka functioned.

"You see Naruto, because he lost his parents at such a young age and had to take care of himself; Iruka-sensei has become quite the serious person."

Naruto looked down at the village below and frowned, "It's like he only picks on me…" he whispered pitifully. Naruto thought back to the women in front of the Academy, _'maybe Iruka-sensei also thinks like that'_.

"Maybe that's because he sees a lot of himself in you and doesn't want you to take shortcuts to become strong." Naruto looked up at Mizuki, _'Really?'_

"You should try seeing it from Iruka-sensei's point of view Naruto." Naruto looked back downcast towards the village, watching the people going about their business seemingly without a worry in the world.

"I just… just wish I could have graduated this time…" He said softly, causing Mizuki to lean in a bit to hear.

"I might be able to help Naruto. Listen carefully alright? This is a secret!"

Naruto stood breathing rapidly, covered in dirt marks and bruises. He was in a forest clearing outside of his village. He had been practicing from a scroll, and not just any scroll, one had he stolen from the Hokage's house. Normally, he wouldn't do such thing; he had quite the respect for the Hokage after all. He wanted to be Hokage someday! But Mizuki had explained to him that the best way to pass the graduation exam and become Genin was by learning a jutsu from this scroll. He had almost gotten caught too! By the Hokage himself! Luckily, he had already gotten the scroll and was able to hightail it out of there.

Sadly this also meant he didn't have enough time to practice all the jutsu on the scroll. So Naruto naturally decided to start with the first jutsu, which unfortunately was the one jutsu he was terrible with, the Kage Bunshin No Jutsu. _'Of course it's a clone jutsu… but I can't give up! I have to learn this jutsu and become a ninja!'_

So here, he stood, rapidly panting. He had been successful in performing the jutsu several times! He fell backwards and sat on the ground, he needed a short break. He was almost out of charka! It would be bad to suffer from charka exhaustion, with no one else around.

"I found you!"

Naruto stood up and quickly faced Iruka, who like Mizuki was dressed in the normal ninja clothes, though Iruka's forehead protector did not cover half his hair, instead his long light brown hair was pulled back in a high ponytail. Most people though usually just saw the medium sized scar crossed Iruka's nose before anything else. Naruto found it to be his most outstanding feature. Though currently, Naruto wasn't wondering about how Iruka obtained the scar for once, instead he was focus upon Iruka's black eyes. The man was currently very irritated.

The man frowned in confused looking Naruto once over, "What have you been doing out here Naruto? Why are you all beat up?" His voice came out with small edge of annoyance and concern.

Naruto blushed, feeling as if he had done something wrong, surely not though. After all, he only did what Mizuki said. "I-I was only practicing this jutsu… b-but I only learned one thing before you c-caught me." Naruto frowned at his stutter, he hated when he did that. He smiled afterwards though, "I-I learned the jutsu! S-so I can g-graduate!" Naruto then started to make the seals but Iruka stopped him.

"Naruto, how did you know about that scroll?"

"Um… M-mizuki-sensei t-told me about it and w-where I could practice too. He explained that i-if I could show one these jutsu on this scroll, I-I could pass." Even though Naruto was stuttering, Iruka knew him while enough to know that he wasn't lying and was shocked.

Before Iruka was able to completely understand what was going, several kunai suddenly flew towards them. Iruka acted instantly, pushing Naruto out of the way, causing the kunai to impale him to an old cabin that was in the forest clearing. "Nice job finding the idiot." Naruto looked up to see Mizuki on top of branch of a tree. He frowned in confusion.

"I see…" Iruka grunted, and started pulling out kunai, that luckily had missed all vital points, from his body.

"Naruto, give me the scroll!" Naruto, still confused, did not react to the demand.

"Don't listen Naruto! Whatever happens, Mizuki must not get his hand on the scroll! It's a forbidden scroll; Mizuki only used you to get it!"

"Don't listen to him, Naruto. In fact, I'll tell you the truth."

"N-NO! DON'T!"

"It was 12 years ago…" As Naruto listened, his eyes widened in disbelief and horror. _'I'm the nine tailed demon fox? M-me?'_

"STOP IT!"

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO KILLED IRUKA'S PARENTS AND DESTROYED THE VILLAGE!" Naruto dropped to his knees and tuned Mizuki out, _'I killed his parents? I am the demon fox? Is that why…?_ _ **I am a monster!**_ _'_ Suddenly red charka surrounded Naruto, his scar-like whiskers became more profound and his nails became sharper. The most petrifying new feature though was that his once darkish blue eyes were now a ruby red filled with hurt. "NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU!" _**'Never love me?'**_

Suddenly Naruto was pushed to the ground causing all his new features to disappear, and Iruka was kneeling over him, covering him, sticking out of the man's back was a large star shuriken. "W-why….?"

"My…" There was a long pause and then Iruka explained his own hardship without having parents, and suddenly tears rained down upon Naruto. Then Iruka continued in a tearful voice, "Naruto, you also must have been in a lot of pain! I am sorry, if I had done better, you wouldn't feel this way!"

Naruto couldn't stand the pain, and ran away. _'Why me? Why did the Fourth put the demon in me?'_ Naruto continued to run as fast as he could through the forest. He ran along several of the tree branches, _'I have to get away, I-I can't stay here!'_ Naruto looked down and immediately took cover behind a tree. Iruka and Mizuki were in front of him, _'I thought I got a head start! Damnit! I can't let them see me!'_

"You fool! Naruto and I are the same!" Naruto blinked at what Mizuki said and frowned in thought. "If one were to use the skills in that scroll, they would be able to do whatever they want! There's no way the demon fox will pass up that opportunity!"

"You're right, the demon fox wouldn't." Naruto's eye narrowed in fury, _'Of course, Iruka-sensei agrees. Everyone hates me, I am a demon! No one acknowledges me for me!'_ "But Naruto isn't the demon fox. He one of my amazing students! He may not be the brightest of them; he is way too quiet, clumsy and he known way too much pain in his life. But he's not the demon fox. He's a member of the hidden leaf village, Konoha. HE'S UZUMAKI NARUTO!" Naruto blink and tears rapidly flowed down his cheeks, _'He… he acknowledged me!'_

"Tch, whatever." Mizuki replied. Naruto made a small growl when he heard Iruka get hurt. "Iruka, I was going to take care of you later. But I think I would rather you hurried up and died!" Mizuki pull out another large star shuriken, spinning it rapidly. Naruto appeared from behind the tree and immediately head-butted Mizuki in the face, preventing the man from finishing his attack.

" **YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!** " Mizuki growled.

"Don't touch Iruka-sensei! **I'LL KILL YOU!** " Naruto remarked piercingly with fury in his voice.

"HAHA! You kill me? More like, I'll kill you!"

"Naruto! Run away!" Naruto ignored both of them and started making seals.

"You think you can kill me? THEN DO IT, DEMON!"

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" Naruto spoke calmly and suddenly hundreds of Narutos appeared in the Forest clearing.

"Wha-what is going on?" Mizuki dropped to the ground, surrounded by several clones of Naruto. Before he could regather his wits, Naruto and his many clones instantly started to pound Mizuki into the ground. Iruka, who was crouched by a tree, stared in amazement at the feat as several minutes later; Mizuki was bloody and out cold.

Naruto canceled the jutsu and stared down at Mizuki, _'Might've have over done it…'_

"Naruto..." Naruto looked over at Iruka with a blush. "There's something I want to give you." _'Give me?'_

Naruto greeted the next day with a satisfied cracking of his back, "I passed." He gently touched the blue forehead protector that laid next to him, remembering what happened last night, Iruka let him pass! He a Genin! Naruto sprinted out of bed, advoiding a pile of clothes on the floor and several other items, and jumped to the small corner that contained his kitchen. He opened a cupboard that was filled with instant ramen and grabbed a cup. He then turned to his small refrigerator and grabbed the milk. It smelt bad, but he wasn't concerned. After preparing and devouring the simple but filling meal, he changed out of his pale blue pajamas and his black nightcap. Today he decided to wear another black t-shirt, with no symbol, with a halfway zipped up light grey jacket over it with his clan symbol on the back. His pants were black like his t-shirt and his sandals followed that trend. On top of his head, he now wore his blue Konoha forehead protector.

He then set out towards the Academy, keeping to the normal routine of keeping his feet quiet and his head straight. Even though, he now wore the ninja symbol of Konoha, villagers still seemed to mistrust him. He could hear several of them questioning how that devil became a shinobi. _'At least I now know why they hate me, though it doesn't really lessen the pain of hearing their remarks…'_ Naruto lightly shook his head, _'I can't let it get to me! I am going to be Hokage someday and they will all knowledge me for who I am!'_

Today, Naruto was unable to sit where he usually sat. Frowning he decided to sit next to Uchiha Sasuke, another one of the quieter students in the classroom. He looked over at Sasuke as he sat down; the boy was dressed in a blue shirt with a white long sleeve shirt underneath it. He also wore grayish white long shorts that stopped at his knees. Just below his knees, he had white bandages wrapped around each leg that stopped shortly before his blue sandals. Sasuke didn't look at Naruto as he sat down. He simply kept his hands folded in front of his face and kept his black eyes straight ahead.

Naruto looked away and frown slightly, he didn't really like Sasuke. He was too arrogant in Naruto's opinion. Plus-

"Sasuke-kun!" A young pink-haired girl squeaked. Sasuke had the affections of Sakura, a girl that Naruto had a crush on. She was very attractive in Naruto's own opinion, with her long pink hair and big green eyes. Naruto blushed lightly as she came over to the desk that he and Sasuke sat in. He noted that she was very pretty in her red qipao dress and tight dark green bike shorts. He also liked the way her hair was pulled back by her Konoha forehead protector. "NARUTO! MOVE YOUR ASS! I WANT TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE!" Naruto's blush deepened and he quickly looked over at Sasuke, _'why can't she just sit next to me? What's so appealing about stupid Sasuke?'_ Sasuke had also looked over when he heard his name, at the same time Sakura had pushed Naruto so she could get closer to Sasuke. It had different result than she had wanted; instead Naruto was suddenly lip-locked with Sasuke.

Both boys reacted instantly, pulling away from one another, and gagging. Naruto froze in mid-gagging, when he felt a fist grab his shirt. Normally he would react to this and push the person off, but it was Sakura who had grabbed his shirt, and he didn't want to hurt her. So he just let it happen, ' _Why does this stuff happen to me?'_

Finally after a few punches, Sakura pushed him over to the side seat and placed herself in-between him and Sasuke. Naruto gently rubbed his cheek, _'I honestly didn't mean to kiss Sasuke… and it only happened because of her, so why did she beat me up?'_ Though was Naruto was upset about getting punched, he didn't feel his crush for Sakura leaving. He still liked her quite a bit. _'She just got a bit of a temper, I guess. Everyone not perfect…'_

"Everyone settle down and listen!" Iruka stated has he walked into the room, Naruto was instantly attentive along with everyone else. Expect for one girl, who been too loud to hear Iruka at first. "Hinata, settle down please."

"Of course sensei, I am sorry."

Iruka continued his lecture, "Today, all of you have become real shinobi... But you are only just Genin. It will be a long journey for all you to become amazing shinobi in your own right. Soon you all will get missions to help the village and it is my job today, to create three man teams for these missions. On top of there being three Genin to a team there will also be a Jounin sensei to help guide you all through your missions. Now listen carefully as I assign your three man cells!"

Naruto listened as Iruka went down the list, finally after several minutes, "Team Seven, Hanuro Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto deflated, while he was happy to be on the same team as Sakura, he knew that being on a team with her _and_ Sasuke would suck. _'What does she even see in him? He doesn't even acknowledge her advances towards him! Why can't she like someone like me? I wouldn't ignore her like him!'_ Naruto blushed as daydreamed about Sakura flirting with him.

He stood up from the desk when Iruka finished the list and told everyone they would be introduced to their Jounin sensei's this afternoon. He decided that all three members of team seven should eat together, "Um, S-sakura-chan, S-sasuke-" he stuttered out quietly, towards his now standing teammates, but then he paused. He was too quietly apparently, because none of them turned around, and both left the classroom without him. Naruto frowned, _'Are they going to eat lunch together and without me? What kind a teamwork is that?'_ Insulted, he turned and left the classroom and in short work was walking towards his apartment, he found that he had forgotten to pack a lunch. _'I likely have enough time to get home, and make a cup of a ramen…'_

"Naruto-kun!" Naruto turned and blinked as a girl ran up to him. It was Hinata. She was dressed in a cream hooded jacket, with a fire symbol on the shoulders, long with dark blue pants with her Konoha forehead protector looped around her neck. Her dark blue hair was short with only some strands of it touching her chin. As soon as she reached him, she took a huge breath, "You were going fast. I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me and my team? I saw that your team kind a left you and it be totally okay if you ate with us you know." Naruto try to keep up as the girl rambled. He loved her eyes, they were interesting to him. He knew of the Byakugan and how the Hyuga clan possessed that blood-limit. It did a nice effect on her eyes, they were pupil less and wide, and very white. Kind a like the moon, and Naruto found it very endearing. Naruto, light shook his head to clear his thoughts, and then realized what Hinata would take from the action, so he quickly spoke.

"S-sure, Hinata."

Hinata frowned, "What was that? You have to speak up!" She leaned closer to his face, "Do you not want to eat with us? Because that's fine too, I suppose…"

Naruto's blushed covered his entire face, he wasn't use to people getting so close to his personal space, let alone a girl, "N-no, that's not it. I-I meant that I would like to eat with y-you and you're t-team!" He squeaked a bit at the end, and his blush deepened and he frowned at himself.

Hinata didn't seem to notice though and simply laughed, loudly, "Alright, come on then, I packed a huge bento, so me and you can share. You can't always eat ramen anyways. It's not healthy!" Naruto resigned to having his blush primarily printed to his face, _'Why does she have to be so straightforward?'_

Naruto naturally followed her back to the academy; he noticed that they were heading to his favorite spot, the tree with the swing. He saw Shino leaning up against the tree, who was dressed in his normal outfit. This outfit consisted of a light grey colored jacket that hide his face up until his nose, where he had sunglasses that hide his eyes and above that sat his blue forehead protector that covered his forehead right before his dark bushy brown hair. He also wore light red shorts and blue sandals.

Naruto found him to be quite weird, since the boy always seemed to hide his eyes and always had bugs crawling all over him. Naruto didn't mind bugs, and he understood that the Aburame clan used bugs as tool in battle, but still didn't fancy eating with bugs crawling around his food. Naruto then turned to look over at the other boy standing nearby to Shino, who had a small white puppy sitting next to him. Naruto immediately knew him as Inuzuka Kiba and the small little puppy as Akamaru.

Kiba's appearance was quite interesting to Naruto. This was because of the fang tattoos underneath each of his black eyes. The way he dressed was fascinating to Naruto also. With his grey jacket that had fur along the cuffs of it and along the hood, that Kiba had over his light brown hair. The hood's fur was so spikey that it almost covered Kiba's forehead protector. Naruto found it weird that Shino was put on a team with such loud members. _'I wonder how that will work out…'_

"Well let's eat!" Kiba exclaimed, and Akamaru barked cheerfully in agreement. Kiba sat down with Akamaru, and pulled out his bento from his bag. Shino also sat down across from Kiba and pulled out his own bento. While Hinata tugged Naruto down and sat with him, making the group form a weird circle in front of his favorite tree. Hinata then pulled her much larger bento out of her bag and set it in-between her and Naruto. Everyone said a quick 'itadakimasu' and dug in.

"How come you aren't eating with your team Naruto?" Kiba asked as he shared some of his rice with Akamaru.

"That's because they are too self-centered! Seriously they just flat out left him to eat by themselves, some team!" Hinata huffed. Naruto frowned, he wanted to stick up for his team, but he didn't know how.

"Man that sucks." Kiba agreed. Naruto didn't reply, and continued to eat his share of the bento. He was use to people talking for him and they were uses to him not always replying, though this time it did fill him with regret. _'I really need to speak up more…'_

Naruto tuned out the rest of the conversations when Kiba started to pester Shino about something trivial. He started to quietly pick at his food, pondering what he should do about his team. "Hey do you not like it or something?" Naruto, jumped slightly at the voice directed at him. He looked up to see Kiba still bugging Shino and turned to look at Hinata.

"I-it's not that, I-I am just thinking is all. The food is g-great, r-really! I-I like it!" Naruto blushed and continued to try and convince her. He hadn't meant to make Hinata think the food was bad, after she generously offered to share!

"Ha, ha good! Because I made it myself! I enjoy cooking and was worried you wouldn't like it, Naruto-kun." Naruto frowned when he thought he saw a light blush form on her cheeks, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. So naturally assumed he imagined it. Hinata gave him a smile and went back to eating her share of the food.

Naruto, not wanting to cause any more confusion, finished his portion. He hadn't lied either, the food was really good. _'Hinata's a good cook'_ Naruto blushed slightly at the thought. He saw that both Shino and Kiba had finished theirs too, and next to him, Hinata had stood up after cleaning up the bento. "Well we better get going, we have to meet our sensei, and I am sure you have to meet yours too! Don't want to be late!"

The rest of them also stood up, and Naruto stuttered out a thank you for the lunch and for letting him eat with them. They waved and walked away. Naruto turned and started to walk towards the meeting spot a little bit early. He frowned suddenly when his stomach started to hurt, and his eyes widened when he realized what was wrong. He immediately dashed to the nearest bathroom.

' _I can't believe I am late! Stupid stomach! I don't really eating anything bad…'_ Naruto ranted inwardly as he walked into a classroom that wasn't unlike his previous classroom. As he walked in, he noticed Sasuke sitting in the desk right next to the door. Again he had his hands folded in front of his face, and he was staring straight ahead. Sakura was leaning against the desk next to Sasuke's. Naruto nodded shyly at them both, and sat down in the desk behind Sakura's. He knew that they made the perfect picture of terrible communication, yet he had no clue how to fix it.

After 30 minutes had passed, Naruto decided to lean his head down on his arms, Sakura was now sitting on top of her desk, and Sasuke didn't seem to have moved an inch. But Naruto could feel the annoyance coming off the guy.

"This sucks, what's taking sensei so long? I bet everyone else has already met their sensei and gone home!" Naruto silently agreed with Sakura, how can their sensei be this late? On top of this, Naruto himself had been a good 20 minutes late! "It's already been an hour by now!"

"T-they c-could be doing s-something important for the Hokage?" Naruto quietly suggested. Sakura jumped and looked back at him with a frown. _'Had she forgotten that I was here?'_ Insulted, he decided to not listen for a reply; Naruto placed his head back down on his hands. He imagined placing an eraser in the doorway as a trap for the late Jounin sensei, and quietly chuckled to himself, knowing it would never work.

After a few more minutes, the door to the classroom finally opened, and in came a man with sliver spikey hair and half his face covered with his forehead protector covering his left eye and a mask covering pretty much the rest of his face. In fact, the only part of his face they could see was his right black eye. Another difference was the man had finger less black gloves on, another than that he was dressed in the normal ninja outfit. All three of the recently graduated Genin reacted in their own special way towards their new Jounin sensei.

Sasuke's reaction was to glare at the newcomer, who lost bit of his respect since the man had shown up an hour late. Naruto in his unsurprisingly quiet way simply sat up straight in his desk and observed the Jounin. He also shared the opinion of Sasuke and wasn't very impressed by the man. Sakura show her disapproval more vocally.

"Why were you so late sensei?" She was expecting some along the lines of what Naruto had suggested earlier.

"Oh? I got lost on the road to life is all." None of them seemed to know how to react to that statement, in fact, by the time the comment had made sense in their heads, the sensei was already moving. "Follow me…" the man stated dully and walked out of the classroom.

The mysterious sensei had led the three Genin to a rooftop not too far from the academy. All three of them had seated themselves on some steps that led to a greenhouse that was filled with large trees; while their new sensei leaned back against a railing on the edge of the building top. "Let's begin by introducing yourselves."

"Like what sensei?" Sakura questioned.

"Your likes, dislikes, dreams for the futures and stuff like that." The man replied with a shrug.

"Could you introduce yourself first?"

"Me? Let's see.. My name is Hatake Kakashi... I have no desire to tell you my likes or dislikes... dreams for the future... hmm... and I have lots of hobbies…" _'All we got out of that was… his name?! What the hell?'_ "Alright then! Let's start with you on the right there." Naruto paled, realizing he was the first to go. He was hopeful that maybe the other two could go first. Naruto stared down at his sandals in horror. _'Too late now, I guess. I just have to tell them my likes, dislikes and dreams and hobbies. I-I can do this! Can I? I hate talking in front of so many people. No don't think like that, just-'_

"I'll go first Kakashi-sensei." Sakura spoke up, feeling bad for Naruto. Kakashi shrugged not caring who went first. Naruto immediately looked up at her, feeling grateful. He knew he still had to go but hopefully his nerves went down before then. "My name is Hanuro Sakura. What I like is... well the person I like is... um uh... my dream is for the future is… OH YEAH! What I really dislike is Yamanaka Ino! My hobby is… well that's it!" Naruto frowned when he saw Sakura look at Sasuke several times through her introduction and went back to looking at his feet. _'Why does she like him so much?'_

Kakashi glanced at Sakura with some amusement on his face and nodded at Sasuke, "Next."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are several things I dislike and I don't really like anything and… it's not really a dream but an ambition to revive my clan and... _To kill a certain man._ " Naruto's eyes widened at that and instantly looked back up towards Sasuke, _'is he serious!?'_

Sakura didn't seem to see anything wrong with the claim, but when Naruto looked over at Kakashi, the man's only showing eye was narrowed in thought. Clearly Naruto wasn't the only one who saw that revenge was a dangerous path to take. _'I wonder who Sasuke wants to kill? Surely not me? Of course not! I hadn't meant to kiss him earlier and he barely looks at me, let alone wants to kill me!'_

"Alright... lastly you." Kakashi stated with boredom, easily brushing off what Sasuke had stated. Naruto looked around to see both his sensei and Sakura looking at him, while Sasuke continued to stare straight ahead; at least it looked that way. Naruto shifted his eyes to his shoes and quickly spoke with a quiet stutter.

"U-um, my n-name is-"

"Naruto... we can't hear you very well..." Sakura interrupted awkwardly. Naruto blushed and started over bit louder, still looking at his feet.

"My name is U-uzumaki Naruto. S-something I like is ramen, and I-I dislike… uh... my dream is…. My dream is to become one of the best Hokages and then..." Naruto paused not able to continue on what his dream was, and blushing deeper when he realized he already admitted half of it.

Because of his head being bowed and his thoughts running wild, he did not notice the reactions of his teams. Kakashi seemed surprised, while both Sasuke and Sakura seem doubtful of his claim. None of them were sure that a shy boy like Naruto could become Hokage, let alone one of the bests.

"Ok! Done with that fiasco. Continuing onwards, tomorrow we will begin our duties as shinobi." Kakashi spoke, bring back everyone's attention. "The first duty we will be carrying out will be survival training with just the four of us." _'Survival training?'_ Naruto was working up to asking Kakashi why, when Sakura beat him to it.

"Why's our first duty training? We already did all our training at the academy."

"It's not the usual training, this time I'm your opponent." Kakashi explained cheerfully, and when he noticed all the bemused faces around him, he continued in the same tone. "You see, you guys are going to freak at this, this training is a very harsh exam. In fact, the failing rate of this exam is 66%! Only nine of the 27 graduates will continue on being Genin, the rest will be sent back to the academy."

Naruto slumped back against the steps, _'another exam? There's no way! I barely passed the last one!'_ He shook his head, trying to stay positive. _'I'll just have to show Kakashi-sensei everything I got! Yea! And he will recognize my strength!'_ Naruto then refocused on Kakashi.

"…told you guys you would freak. Anyways, tomorrow you will need to show all your skills, so bring all your shinobi tools…. Oh... and skip breakfast, you could throw up." _'T-throw up? N-no way!'_

"It's that tough of an exam?" Sakura questioned as Kakashi handed out papers with the details of tomorrow. Naruto looked over at his teammates, both looked very determined, _'Well I am too! If I am going to be Hokage, I can't be afraid!'_

Naruto turned recklessly in his bed that night, even though he tried to keep positive, he never really did well on exams. _'What do I do? I can't fail! Both Sakura-chan and Sasuke didn't look concern… of course they both weren't dead last in class rankings. Speaking of class… I wish Iruka-sensei took me out for some more ramen… like last night.'_ Naruto smiled fondly as he remembered how Iruka took him to his favorite ramen stand, Ramen Ichiraku, to celebrate graduating from the academy. Naruto groaned miserably, _'I can't fail tomorrow! Not after everything!'_

After several minutes, Naruto groaned again and turned over in his bed tossing his blanket to the floor. _'Can't sleep, might as well train until I can!'_ Naruto jumped out of his bed and dragged out a training doll, setting it up. "Right!"

After several hours of training, Naruto fell back against his bed, instantly asleep. He didn't mind the sweat or the sticky clothes at all. Slowly the last two hours of the night creeped away and the birds started to sing a melody that only morning people truly could enjoy. In this case, Naruto was not one of those people. Instead he slept right through their clatter, only reacting to it with a gibberish mumble. Though what did wake the boy up, an hour later, was when he suddenly turned to greatly on the bed, and fell ungracefully on the floor, thumping his head against his small nightstand.

Naruto sat up disorient, rubbing the side of his head, "Ugh…" He stood up from the floor and absentmindedly stared out the window behind his bed. He slowly took in the white blueish shine of the sky, blinking rapidly. _'It's morning….OH SHIT!'_

Almost instantly, Naruto threw off his sweaty night clothes and threw on his daily clothes. Suddenly he paused when he came to his kitchen corner, wondering if he should just stuff down some toast even though he was warned. Deciding against it, he left his apartment in haste, not even thinking about the villagers this time. He was too late to overthink it.

He arrived at the training ground several minutes later. Both Sasuke and Sakura were already there. Both were standing next to three logs that were sticking straight up from the ground, place there for training purposes. He walked over to them, frowning when he noticed that Kakashi was not there. _'I guess its sort a good thing he late, since I showed up fairly late myself…'_

"So how come you were late?" Naruto looked around the clearing at first, thinking that Kakashi had just shown up. Then he realized that Sakura was in fact talking to him. He blushed terribly and looked at his feet. _'She's talking to me! I better say something! I hope she's not mad!'_

"I-I am s-sorry. I w-woke up late."

"Well try to be on time next time, we are shinobi and it's important to be on time." Naruto nodded still blushing, _'she should lecture our sensei about that…'_

Naruto retreated into his mind after that, staring at his weapon pouch on his right leg. _'How are we supposed to fight a Jounin? We need to work together, I am sure…'_ He shuffled his feet nervously and wondered how late Kakashi would be this time. A noise roughly startled him out of his thoughts. Blushing, he realized it was his stomach. _'If Kakashi-sensei was going to be this late, I should have just eaten breakfast.'  
_ "Good morning guys!" chirped a voice. Naruto immediately turned to look as Kakashi walked over to his team.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto grimaced as Sakura shouted in his ear.

Instead of replying, Kakashi went right into explaining, "Alright here are two bells. The task is to take these from me before the time is up." He set up a timer on one of the training polls, "Anyone who doesn't get a bell by noon gets no lunch. I'll tie you to one of those polls and eat my lunch right in front of you." _'Ugh… that's why he said no breakfast… sneaky bastard.'_

"You only need to get one bell. Since there are only two bells, only two of you will pass. The person who doesn't get a bell fails and will be sent back to the academy." Kakashi tied the bells to his belt. "Remember, you won't succeed if you don't come at me with the intent to kill."

"But you'll be in danger!" Sakura protested against the idea of fighting so harshly against their sensei. Naruto quietly disagreed with her, _'He a Jounin… the highest ranking of ninja after the Hokage! Just because he has a habit of being late doesn't mean he weak! I doubt all three of us combined could take him.'_

"From who? Mr. Deadlast over there?" Kakashi drawled and pointed at Naruto. Naruto flushed in anger and clenched his fists. _'I'll show him dead last! I'll get one of those bells and kick his face in!'_

"Right when I say start…" Several seconds passed and Kakashi cleared his throat, "BEGIN!" Naruto and his team scattered in the woodland area around the training grounds. Naruto had stationed himself under a bush watching as Kakashi didn't even move from his spot in the training area. Instead he had pulled out a book and started to read. _'He clearly is underestimating us…'_ Lucky Naruto was facing the back of his sensei and formed a plan. _'If he distracted it could work!'_ Quietly, Naruto molded his charka, performed the seals to conjure up several clones. He placed all them in the hiding spots near his. He frowned for a moment, wondering if he should enlist help from his teammates. _'But there are only two bells… I doubt they will want to help me…it's really every man for himself.'_

He commanded all his clones to attack Kakashi from all sides. Naruto also left his spot, looking for openings to grab the bell from the sliver-headed sensei. Instead he saw several of his clones disappear in puffs of smoke. He didn't stop though, and tried a spinning kick to his sensei's face. At the same time two of his shadow clones threw kunai from both sides, Kakashi was able to avoid his kick and one of the kunai. The last one did make an impact. Naruto grinned and went for a bell again.

Instead the kunai made a thump, hitting a log. _'Kawarimi no jutsu!'_ Naruto landed on his feet and signaled his clones to stop fighting. He scanned the forest area trying to see if he could find his sensei. He started having his clones to look around the forest and training area. As he scanned the area, he noticed a small shine on the ground by a tree. He canceled the jutsu and walked closer to the tree.

' _A bell! He dropped one?'_ Naruto looked around then went to pick up the bell, instead of picking it up; he was suddenly several feet off the ground upside down! Naruto blushed when he realized he fell for a trap and now was hanging by a rope tied to the tree. _'Damnit.'_

"Don't fall for such obvious traps, idiot." Naruto blushed even more as he watched Kakashi pick up the bell from the ground. "A shinobi must be able to see what's underneath the underneath." Naruto's eyes widened when Kakashi was hit several times in the face with kunai and star shuriken. _'Isn't that going too far Sasuke?'_ he thought. But again, Kakashi puffed into a log, making good use of the substitution jutsu. Sasuke immediately ran off. Naruto frowned, wishing that Sasuke would've at least freed him. _'This team sucks.'_ Naruto reached into one his weapon pouches and grabbed one his kunai and cut himself down. _'Damnit... I can't fall for another one of those stupid traps!'_ as soon as he touched ground, he was right back where he started. _'Damnit another one!? Seriously? Ugh…'_ Naruto was able to get hold of another kunai, and cut himself down again. This time though he jumped over the trap so that he wasn't caught again. As he landed he noticed two bento boxes sitting on a memorial. _'Hehe. I can just eat one of them now… then I will have easier time in fighting against Kakashi-sensei.'_ Naruto paused for a second, wondering if it was another trap. He decided he should avoid the ground, and jumped right on to the memorial. Then after checking the ground around by throwing a kunai, he hopped down with one of the bento boxes. Before he could even open the bento, a voice spoke up.

"What do you think you are doing?" Naruto blushed and try to stutter out a reply to explain his behavior to Kakashi, instead he found himself tied to one of the training polls. _'Great… he tied the rope too tight… I can't even more my arms to grab a kunai! I guess I am stuck. Does this mean I fail? DAMNIT!'_

Naruto didn't have to wait long for the timer to go off, and the other two to come walking out of the forest. Naruto blushed when they both gave him a passing glance, before sitting down next to him, Sasuke on his right and Sakura on his left. Kakashi stood before them, arms folded with his face showing his lack of interest. "Wow, you guys look really hungry. Oh! By the way… about the training… none of you have to back to the academy." _'What? Does that mean that we…'_

"Really, does that mean all three of us…?"

Kakashi nodded at Sakura, "Yup, all three of you should quit being shinobi."

"W-why?"

"Because all of you are just punks who aren't cut out to be ninjas." _'Damnit!'_ Naruto thought. He gasped abruptly when Sasuke flew past him towards Kakashi. _'What is he doing? That idiot.'_

"Sasuke-kun!"

In a blink of an eye, Kakashi had tackled Sasuke to the ground with no effort at all. "That's why you're a punk."

" **DON'T SIT ON SASUKE-KUN!** "

"Do you guys think ninjas are a joke? Why do you think you were divided into teams and are doing this training huh?" Naruto blushed, realizing what Kakashi was implying, _'I knew that it was going to be an issue.'_

"Huh? What does that mean?" Naruto blinked over at the pink-hair girl, not understanding how she didn't get it.

"It's simple. You guys do just not understand the answer to this exam." Naruto looked down at his feet, feeling highly uncomfortable in every way imaginable.

"So... what's the answer then?"

Kakashi was quiet for a second, shaking his head in disappointment, "The answer is teamwork. If the three of you had worked together, you would have gotten the bells from me."

"What? But there are only two bells! Even if we were to work together, someone would still fail! This test is set up to make us fight each other!"

"Exactly. Its goal is to make you forget your own interest and work together as a team. Instead, Sakura was too focused on Sasuke, to even attempt to help Naruto. While Naruto seems to be too shy to ask for help and then instead try to do it himself. Sasuke just assumed others would get in the way and tried to do everything all by himself. It's important to have one's own ability but teamwork is just as important!" Kakashi pulled out a kunai.

"Without teamwork, it could get one of you killed. Let's say for instance… SAKURA! KILL NARUTO! OR SASUKE DIES!" _'WHAT?!'_ Naruto looked over at Sakura, using her panic, knowing that she would instantly kill him for Sasuke. Frowning in anger, Naruto looked away from her. _'Typical.'_

"And that's a good example of what could happen on a mission without good teamwork, someone or everyone would die. For example the memorial over there, is filled with heroes who have died." Kakashi stood up and walked over to stare upon the memorial. "My best friend name is craved on here." Naruto was shocked and looked away from the sight of his sensei. _'I wonder if my parents are on there?'_

"I'll give you guys one more chance after lunch, it'll be even harder this time to get the bells. Those who wish to take the test again can eat lunch, but Naruto can't have any."

"O-oh…" Naruto blushed, this was his fault.

"This is your punishment for trying to eat the food by yourself. Anyone who gives him food will fail." Then with that Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The other two looked over at Naruto.

"I-it's okay. I-I am fine." He blushed when his stomach rumbled. _'Damnit! I am striving!'_ His teammates both sat down and begin to eat their lunches, Naruto try to ignore the aroma floating up to his nose. Sadly his stomach could not, and it growled again.

"Tch, here." Naruto blinked and started down at Sasuke. _'H-he feeding me?'_

"B-but you'll f-fail!"

"Yea Sasuke-kun! Naruto said he was fine anyways!"

"It's fine, I don't sense sensei. Naruto needs to eat otherwise he will just be a liability. For us to be able to work as a team, he needs to be in his best form." Naruto blushed again, realizing that Sasuke was right.

Sakura stared at Sasuke for a moment then nodded and started to also share her food with Naruto. They had to feed him, since he was tied to the poll still, Naruto didn't really like that. He knew they couldn't untie him without Kakashi knowing but it was so uncomfortable eating this way! After a few minutes, Naruto felt his hunger abated and was about to tell them they didn't have to share anymore when a large cloud of smoke appeared in front of them.

After the smoke cleared, they were faced with an anger Kakashi. "What are you doing?! YOU GUYS!" Naruto closed his eyes as Sakura screamed. _**"PASS!"**_

"R-really?" Naruto opened his eyes in disbelief.

"You guys are the first to ever pass my test! Everyone else was just too stupid and listened to everything I said! It's like something I heard once, 'Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash… but those who don't take care of their companions are worse than trash.' Get it?" _'He makes a great point. He pretty cool.'_

Naruto smiled as he dressed for bed. ' _I passed! I am a Genin! And Kakashi-sensei fixed our teamwork! I can't wait to go on a mission tomorrow!'_ He stretched, feeling the rope burns on his back. His team had forgotten to untie him, so he had to do some work to get himself untied. _'Hopefully that's not a daily occurrence.'_ He grabbed his blanket from the floor and closed his eyes, he couldn't wait for tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

Twisted C2 – Word Goal: 9,000 – achieved 9,752

Naruto stood next to his team in the Hokage building, watching as Madam Shijimi crushed Tora, her cat. They had recently found the cat in the forest outside of the village. Naruto rubbed his face; the cat didn't seem to like him. It had left several scratch marks on his face. _'I don't think I have met any cat that's actually liked me, honestly. I wonder if it's because of the fox…'_

As soon as the Fire Country lord's wife left, the Third Hokage got right to assigning them another mission. "Next mission is to babysit…" Naruto tuned him out, _'for the last week, we've been doing these shitty missions. Why can't we do C-rank missions yet?'_ Naruto frowned and looked over at his teammates; Sasuke didn't look like he was to please about their mission either. _'Maybe I should speak up? Yea I should.'_ Naruto looked down at his dark blue sandals, noticing he had a tiny rip on the end of his right deep black pant leg. _'I wonder when I got that… NO stay on track! You have to ask for a C-Rank mission.'_

"Naruto, let's go." Kakashi said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Naruto blushed, realizing he lost his chance and followed his team out of the Hokage Tower. _'I don't even know what mission we are doing now…I should have been paying attention.'_ He passed by a chubby old man with spikey grey-hair and a towel on his neck. Naruto wonder what mission that guy needed done.

Naruto looked over to Sakura who was walking fairly close to him, and up to see that Sasuke and Kakashi were ahead of them a bit. "S-Sakura-chan." Sakura jumped slightly at his voice, not expecting him to talk to her. He rarely spoke as it was. _'I wonder if her mood is dimmed a bit with two quiet teammates…'_

"Yea?" Sakura fell back bit in step with him. "What's up?"

"C-Could you t-tell me what our mission is?" He peeped in embarrassment.

"Oh? You weren't paying attention? That's not like you. I think it was babysitting some elder's grandson. I wasn't really paying attention either, I was kind of hopeful for a C-Rank mission to be honest." Sakura admitted with a slightly blush. Naruto looked in wonder, _'She never blushes around me, could this mean she might like me a bit? S-Stay on track!'_

"M-Me too." Sakura looked over at him in thought. In fact, she stared at him so long that he started to fidget.

"Naruto, there's something that I have to say sorry for. Hinata brought it to my attention that I was unfair before when we got our teams. I treated you like crap, and as a teammate I should do better. Our training before also nailed that point to me. I meant to say this earlier, but I didn't have the chance. B-But, I am sorry okay? I'll do better from now on to treat you as a teammate!" She promised with her fist in front of her. Naruto's blushed deepened, _'Hinata talked to her? She didn't have to do that…'_

"T-Thank you, S-Sakura-chan."

"No. Don't thank me. Thank Hinata, she the one who told me I should apologize after all!" Naruto blinked, realizing Sakura was right, he should thank Hinata. Naruto stopped in thought, and Sakura stopped with him a smile placed upon her face. "Actually there something else. I know boys can be kind a dense about this kind a thing but, I think she might like you. So I am sure she would love it if-" Naruto could feel his face burning, _'Seriously not? Like me? B-But she so pretty and an heiress, it would never work! She couldn't possible…'_ Naruto could feel himself being drawn in to old memories of his that he had shoved away.

 _A young boy of eight was thrust to the ground as some older boys walked by him. This young boy was dressed in the typical winter clothes, a red scarf and a dark coat with some old heavy faded blue jeans. The boy held back some tears and picked himself up after the snow covered floor._

" _Hey, you alright?" The boy looked up in surprise, not expecting someone to speak to him. No one ever spoke to him personally. Spoke of him, sure, but never to him. He looked at the young girl, who looked to be his age, and with a light blush, nodded._

 _The young girl was also dressed in typical winter clothes, a green scarf, red coat and some heavy dark colored jeans. The girl looked down at his hand and frowned. "No you're not! Look you're bleeding; you must have hit something on the way down! Here let me see it." The girl immediately grabbed his right hand gently, inspecting his hand. Upon seeing the wound, the young boy's held back tears, came raining down._ _ **'Why do these things always happen to me? Am I really such a worthless space of existence?'**_

" _Oh! Why are you crying, did I hurt you? Hey it's okay, the wound isn't that bad, I'll fix it right up! I got this ointment that my mom makes and it's amazing!" The girl took out a small green container from her coat pocket. "Mom always gives me this, since I always seem to get hurt playing!" The girl opened the container and immediately started to apply it on the boy's hand. It seemed to take an instantaneous effect. "Wow, mom must have done something different this time! You're wound healed up in almost no time at all! See look!" She held up the hand in front of the still heavily crying boy. The girl huffed._

" _Why are you still crying? It's all better now!" The boy shook his head, trying to explain that, that wasn't what was wrong. He was crying too hard to say. The girl seemed to understand anyways, and suddenly the boy was crushed into a huge bear hug. "I think I understand. I have these days sometimes too, where I feel like the world is just too heavy to carry on my shoulders. I think the best medicine for it is these huge hugs."_

 _The young boy had to agree, after a few minutes of being held, the hug did make him feel way better._

" _T-Thank y-you." The girl looked down at the smaller boy and smiled gently. '_ _ **She's very pretty'**_ _he thought,_ _ **'her eyes are so white and wide. It's amazing.'**_ _The girl lightly grabbed his left hand and made him follow her._

 _She led them to a dark green bench, which was shockingly not covered in snow. The girl sat down and tugged the young boy with her, placing him next to her. "Do you want to talk about it? Mom always says that talking about one's issues is very helpful." The girl looked over at the boy as he stared down at the ground. Thinking quickly she stated, "We don't have to go right into it. How about we start with our names? My name is Hyuga Hinata, what's yours?"_

 _Hinata waited patiently, understanding the boy was fairly shy, and she was reward with a small, "U-Uzumaki Naruto." Hinata smiled again at Naruto._

" _Okay next, we can share our favorite colors. Mine's blue. Come on, what's yours?"_

 _Naruto took a deep breath to settle his nerves; he wasn't use to talking to someone so casually. "O-Orange."_

" _Oh? You don't seem to wear it very much, for it to be your favorite, I mean. Seems to me, you are always wearing black. Honestly, I thought black was your favorite color." Naruto looked up at her, confused,_ _ **'how could she know that?'**_ _Hinata blushed, "I might have seen you a few times in the village. I see how people look at you. I don't get it, but I know how you feel." Hinata looked away, looking at some winter flowers that were nestled around the bench._

" _The people of this village don't see you for who you are. I know how that feels. I don't think my clan sees me for who I am either. But I have my mom you know? It makes everything better, somehow. That she knowledge me for who I am. And you know what else? I knowledge you for who you are too. You are shy, sometimes a bit of a cry baby. You also let too many bad things happen to you. You never stand up for yourself, and honestly I don't think you could hurt a fly." Naruto blushed in humiliation, '_ _ **she's right, I am pathetic.'**_ _"But you know what really impresses me about you Naruto-kun?"_ _ **'Naruto-kun?'**_ _He stared up at her in shock. Her face was very close to his, her white pupil-less eyes staring at him with such self-assurance, it made him tremble._

" _You're_ _ **brave.**_ _You never back down, no matter how hard those rotten villagers kick you down. You might do it silently, but you still do it. Every day, you continue to live and try you're best, and that's amazing. No one else helps you either. You somehow do it all on your own. None of them could compare to you, and one day you'll show all of them what you are made of. I really like that trait about you honestly. It amazes me."_ _ **'She's incredible…'**_ _Naruto sat there stone-shocked, he didn't know what to say or do. So he continued to stare into those endless white eyes, his heart pumping rapidly._

" _Hinata-sama! Where are you? You better not have run off again!" Both children jumped at the loud voice, nearby._

" _OH! I forgot! I am sorry, Naruto-kun, I have to go. I'll see you around alright?" Naruto watched as she left and smiled down at his feet._

" _She's incredible." He repeated out loud, touching his right hand fondly._

"Sakura, Naruto, hurry up we're going to be late!" Sakura huffed and complained that Kakashi had no right to lecture them on being late. Naruto, shook his head, _'she off-limits, don't think like that!'_ and he looked over at the pink-haired girl, _'she a much safer choice.'_

Naruto walked quietly in the emerald grass. He stared down at the several gravestones, pondering once again, why he couldn't find any graves of his parents here. Some of the graves were filled with flowers of many kinds. Naruto enjoyed coming here late at night, sometimes, to water the flowers. Because of this unusual hobby of his, he knew a secret that not many people knew.

"H-Hinata-chan." He spoke softly towards the girl, who was kneeled in front of a grave, placing white flowers in front of it.

"Naruto-kun, you know better!" Naruto blushed, realizing his mistake and immediately correct himself as walked closer to the blue-haired girl.

"Hinata." He greeted again, and kneeled down next to her. He looked over at the grave in sorrow. "D-Do they know you still do this?"

She chuckled sadly, "if they did, do you think I'd be here right now?" His blush deepened, and shook his head violently. "Of course, you always seem to know." He nodded. "Naruto-kun, do you think…" Her voice cracked and she trailed off. Naruto wanted to pull her close and give her proper comfort, but alas he couldn't.

Hinata looked over at him, her white eyes were filled with angst, tears dangled off her chin, some of them tumbling and splashing on her jacket. "Would…" she hiccupped slightly. "Would you walk me home please?" Naruto knowing that it could be a bad idea, nodded anyways. He couldn't allow her to walk home alone like this.

Naruto stood up gingerly and hesitantly held out a hand towards her. She took the offered hand in a soft but powerful hold and stood up. He wanted to ask what made her so sad today, but couldn't, it likely had to deal with her clan and he wasn't sure she would want to explain. _'I hate them, and their stupid rules.'_ He thought with bitterness, wishing he could do something to make it better.

He blushed suddenly when he realized they were still holding hands, as they made their way out of the cemetery. He dropped her hand gently, knowing that it would cause issues that she didn't need. Hinata frowned slightly, out of his view, hating Naruto's detachment. "Naruto-kun, there's something I have to tell you." Naruto looked back up from looking at their hands, to stare at the pretty young girl beside him. "I won't be here next Friday."

Naruto frowned, "W-Why?" Not liking that he wouldn't get to see her again for a while. He and Hinata had been meeting at the graveyard for a good two years now, and mostly on Fridays. Though there was some events that got in the way of their constant meeting over the years, Naruto still didn't like it. She was his only friend, and the first person to fully see him. He wished he could see her more.

"I have a long mission. I convinced the Hokage to give me and my team a C-Rank mission!" He was a tad jealous of her, _'she so confidence, I wish I was like her more.'_ Nonetheless, he was happy for her and nodded at her to continue her story. He was happy to keep her out of her gloomy state. "Yea, it's just an escort and protection mission of some rude old guy. But I can't wait! I am going tomorrow morning actually, since it was too late to go right away. Anyways, the mission could take a few weeks, because the old man wants us to protect him while he builds something." Hinata blushed, knowing she was explaining a bit too much to Naruto about her mission, yet she knew he wouldn't tell anyone. He barely spoke, let alone told other about people her mission! She knew she could trust him.

"G-Good luck." He said with pure sincerity. She smiled at him, and thanked him. They stopped a block away from her clan's compound. She turned towards him and hugged him. Dazed at the action, he was unable to react back.

"You always make me feel better, you know?" Then with that she ran away, keeping her face from his view. His face, on the other hand, she had seen clearly. He was looked just like a ripped tomato. _'W-Wait, I forgot!'_

Naruto woke with a grin and did his normal stretch of his back. He was always content after talking with Hinata. He slipped out of his bed and walked over to his kitchen, not getting ready just yet. He paused when he saw revolting greens on his table, cooked on a plate. Along with the veggies there was a note, he picked it up, already knowing who wrote it.

"I figured since we wouldn't see each other for a while, I'd guilt you in to eating these. I made them just for you. Like I always say, it's not healthy to always eat ramen!

You're friend,

Hinata."

Naruto blushed, hating when she pointed out his flaws. He grabbed a cup from one of his cupboards. He wasn't ready to drink more milk after the last disaster, so he decided to just stick with some plain old water from the tap. _'Why is she always so straightforward?'_ He thought, definitely not for the first time. He sighed with a pout, and sat down at the table, _'I guess, I just have to eat them… she made them after all! It would be rude not too.'_ Naruto made his way through the veggies, grimacing at every bite. He went to grab at his cup, and frowned when his cup cracked, _'Damnit, shitty cup.'_

Naruto stood next to Sakura as the team waited on the bridge, for their always late sensei. Naruto was trying to guess what lame excuse the guy would use this time. Sakura stood next to him, tapping her foot with impatience and next her Sasuke was leaning against the railing, possibly filled with annoyance at having to wait again.

Sasuke was actually quite bit away from the other two, and Naruto hate it. Even after their training on the first day, Sasuke still seemed to rely only on himself most of the time. While only letting Naruto and Sakura help sometimes, it infuriated him. At least Sakura was trying now, to fix her flaws. _'Hell, even I am trying to fix the flaws that Kakashi pointed out to us. It's going to be an issue someday, if he doesn't start opening up.'_ Naruto didn't realize he was glaring at Sasuke until the boy himself, looked up and glared right back. Naruto wanted to hold the stare, but he couldn't and with a blush he looked away.

Thankfully at the same time, Kakashi showed up, "Sorry I was late, I had to help this old lady you see."  
Sakura huffed, "Yeah right, Kakashi-sensei!" Kakashi shrugged and promptly led the three Genins to the Hokage tower. Naruto like always tailed behind the others, watching as Sakura try to keep in line with Sasuke. _'Honestly, I don't see why she bothers…'_ He looked up at the sky, and wondering if they would get a C-Rank mission today. _'It's been two days since Hinata and her team left… I missed her more, knowing she not even in the village.'_ Naruto shook his head, and looked at his team, particularly at the long pink haired girl. _'Sakura's really pretty today…'_

Naruto pushed his thoughts away as they walked into the Hokage tower, it was best not to be distracted when they got another D-Rank mission. Naruto cried out when a carrier ran over him, dropping the sealed scroll they were carrying on the floor. Both he and the carrier tumbled to the ground. Naruto blushed profusely and hurried to pick up the now opened scroll in front of him. "I-I am…" Naruto froze when he picked up the scroll, he stood up, visibly pale.

The carrier not noticing anything unusual grabbed the scroll, thanked him and continued to hurrying down the hall. Naruto's teeth clenched, but before he could have more of a reaction, his team called for him too caught up.

Naruto quickly rejoined them, walking slightly faster than he normally did. For once, he was in line with his teammates, instead of several feet behind, feeling out of place. Naruto's thoughts were rattled and he hardly could make senses of them, himself. _'How? What happened? What? Can I? Damnit! I should… I DON'T KNOW._ _ **I have to go there now**_ _.'_

He didn't bother acknowledging the glances that Sasuke and Sakura gave him. Both of them could feel anger radiating off the quiet boy. Finally, to slow in Naruto's opinion, they entered the mission room. The Hokage sat at the long table, reading the scroll, he was just handed, while Iruka who was seated next to him, gave them a nodded.

Before Kakashi could even announce the team's presence to the Hokage, Naruto spoke up with ill-advised anger, "Hokage-sama, I wish to go to the Land of Waves for our next mission." Everyone stared at him in vary degrees of disbelief. No one had expected him to speak out at all, let alone demand something filled with such venom. The Hokage, of course was the first to recover.

"I am to assume you saw this scroll?" Naruto nodded, his anger slowly leaving him and a blush tinted his checks. He hadn't meant to be so harsh, but he had to go there and help. The Third Hokage stared at Naruto for a bit then glanced down at the scroll in front of him.

"Naruto, you shouldn't demand such things or talk to the Hokage-sama like that!" Iruka, lectured. Naruto looked at him, and sulked, clearly Iruka hadn't see the scroll yet otherwise the man would be lecturing him differently.

"I-I know, but…"

Kakashi stepped in, on Iruka's side, "He's right Naruto we can't just demand our missions. We will take what the Hokage gives us, and nothing more understood?" Kakashi leaned down and looked at Naruto. Instead of a nod, Naruto scoffed and looked at his feet.

The Hokage finished the scroll and relooked up towards Team Seven, "Naruto, while I understand your request. I am afraid it is too dangerous for me, to send another team of Genin to the Land of Waves. The mission isn't a Rank-C mission anymore, it's a Rank-A, I would be sending your team to its death. I am sorry, but you can't go."

Naruto didn't bother listening to the lecture, his rage had returned in full. He made one angry glance at the Third Hokage and stormed out of the room, the remaining occupants stared after him.

Naruto sit gloomy on top of the First Hokage's head that was craved in the mountain. In fact all the Hokage faces were craved into the mountainside that faced the village. Normally he would have sat on the Fourth Hokage's head, but Naruto still hadn't forgiven the man. He looked down upon the village below, thinking over what he was going to do. He knew it was a bad idea, but he couldn't think of any better ones. _'I have to go, I don't care what happens. I am fully prepared to deal with all the consequences that arise from my actions.'_

Naruto wasn't going to sit idly by while Hinata and her team were in danger. He knew it was dangerous, but he had to do something. Naruto grabbed his travel bag from beside him and stood up, his mind now completely made up. _'Hopefully no one catches on to what I am going to do.'_

As he walked through the village, he accidently smashed right into someone. Amazingly, Naruto was able to keep standing up while the much smaller boy fell to the ground. Naruto said a quick sorry and kept walking in a fast pace. The boy, having not heard the sorry nor seen Naruto leave, grabbed his grey helmet off the ground, angrily telling the air he was the Hokage's grandson and that the idiot should be more respectful. The young boy finally noticing that the other had left flushed in fury.

After getting to the main gate, Naruto immediately pulled out his watering can, and walked right by the sentries with no issue. Both of them knowing that, Naruto tend to water the flowers around the front of the gate. Naruto watched the Chunin guards out of the corner of his eye as he pretend to water some of the flowers, after a while, he deemed that they had forgotten about him. So he immediately took off silently, down the path, with no one the wiser.

Naruto placed his empty watering can back in his traveling sack, swinging the bag on to his back. _'That was almost too easy; hopefully it takes them a while to realize I have left…'_ Naruto looked around, as he walked the deserted path. He had never left his village before, and was almost expecting everything to look different immediately. Instead all the trees around him looked just like the trees around his village, painfully reminding himself that he likely would never get to go back as a Konoha ninja. _'They might never acknowledge me now…'_

He shook his head violently; it wasn't the time to be thinking like that. His dreams didn't matter if he couldn't protect Hinata, without her, he wouldn't have dreams at all. Naruto quickened his pace, according to the map; Land of Waves wasn't terribly far from Konoha. He could make it in a half a day, with just himself.

After a few hours of traveling, the sun started to set. Naruto frowned, coming to the realization that he had start traveling later than he thought. He decided against stopping for the night, and continued onward. He knew it was unsafe to travel at night, but he figured that it was safer for him to continue traveling, since he was alone. Still he couldn't help the goosebumps and irrational thoughts going through his head. _'What if there are ghosts in the forest or something even worse? Like rogue ninjas?'_ Successfully wigging himself out, he immediately started to run as fast as he could.

After an hour, he stopped, eyes widened at the huge bridge in front of him. _'This is bigger than any bridge I have ever seen!'_ He looked at the out of order sign, and puffed out a breath. _'Damnit. This is the way to go… what do I do now?'_ Naruto looked around, looking for a way to across the huge body of water. His blue eyes landed on a motor boat bit further down the ocean, he then spied a man getting ready to leave with the boat. Naruto fidgeted and timidly walked over to the man.

"U-Um s-sir?" Naruto peeped. The older man immediately looked over in surprise, and then almost leaped in greater amazement to see Naruto. Naruto frowned, wondering why the man was surprised to see him. "C-Could I get a ride? I-I can pay you." Naruto blushed as the old man continued to stare at him.

"They sent more of you? You're just a kid, what use will you be?" Naruto's blush covered his entire face at this point, and he took a deep breath, trying to settle his voice from trembling, he was a terrible liar, so he tried a different approach.

"P-Please sir, I just need a ride to the Land of Waves, and I-I can pay." Naruto held out a green frog wallet, which was only halfway full. The man glanced at it and sighed.

"Fine, get in and stay quiet got it?" Naruto nodded, knowing that wouldn't be an issue for him. He settled in the boat, and the man grabbed some paddles and joined him. Naruto frowned, as he saw the man start to row the boat, instead of using the motor. Instead of asking why, Naruto grabbed the extra pair on the floor of the boat and helped row the boat. _'It'll go faster this way. I don't have time for this guy's weird antics.'_ The old man looked at him again in disbelief, but didn't say anything to him. He simply looked back to the front and continued to row the boat.

Finally after an hour, they hit the other side of the vast bridge. Naruto immediately got off the boat and took out his wallet. "Forget it boy, you don't have to pay." Naruto frowned in confused, as the man simply tied and locked the boat up, leaving the harbor without a backwards glance. Deciding not to dawdle about it, Naruto continued into the village.

Naruto was stunned, as he wandered around the village. _'People are in bad shape here…'_ He walked by several homeless people, kids included, sitting by the edge of buildings. It was very late, so many of the villagers were snuggled together, trying to sleep in the cold. The sight left him deeply disturbed. Naruto paused as he saw a young girl eating a rotten apple, by a nearby building. He looked around, but he couldn't see any parents. _'Maybe she's alone?'_ Instantly feeling kinship with the child, Naruto swung his bag from his back, and looked through it. Luckily he had found some chocolate bars, realizing his instant ramen would be a poor choice to give to the girl. He kneeled down and smiled gently at the girl who immediately looked up at him.

"Here." He said quietly, holding out the candy. The girl's emerald eyes widened, dropping her apple, she gingerly took the chocolate. The girl said a quiet thank you; he nodded shyly back at her, and stood back up, readjusting his bag. _'Hopefully, she doesn't get sick from all this poverty.'_ He continued onwards in the village, wondering how he would find Hinata and her team. _'I wish I had, had time to read more of that scroll.'_

Naruto sighed at his misfortune, and decided to look some more tomorrow. He was exhausted after traveling half the day and waking up early. Making up his mind, he instantly started to look for a place to sleep. He walked to the small forest and dropped to the ground near some flowers. They sent up a nice fragrance to his nose. _'Wish I could find an inn, but looking at the state of the town, it might be better to sleep out here.'_ Groaning, he remembered that he would have to set some traps to prevent thieves and the like from taking advantage of his sleeping form. He stood up with another groan and set to work on setting up modest traps, more than likely most thieves would be the villagers, and he had no desire to hurt them to bad.

After he was done with the traps, he immediately laid back down, wishing he had thought to pack a bedroll, _'I really didn't think any of this through. I hope I find Hinata tomorrow… I remember her saying something about the old man that they were protecting was building something. I wish she had told me what, and then I could relocate closer to the building site.'_ Knowing that he had likely a long day tomorrow, he try to think of less troubling thoughts. Instead of thinking of what tomorrow would bring, he listed off his favorite ramen to his less favorite, eventually falling asleep.

"Hey, you'll catch a cold sleeping here." A warm voice spoke, as a hand shook his shoulder softly. Naruto groaned at first, and then opened his blue eyes, blinking when a girl came into view. The girl had long shadowy hair, and large dark chocolate eyes. The young girl was dressed in a pink kimono with red edges with small swirls that were a darker shade of pink spread out all over the kimono. Naruto concluded that she was very pretty and very close to him. He reddened and back away from the girl.

The girl smiled at him in amusement, she turned and picked up a basket filled with some flowers. The girl walked over to the patch of flowers and continued to pick more of them. Naruto frowned, realizing that the girl was no normal civilian. _'She bypassed all my traps! She didn't even set any of them off.'_ Immediately on his guard, he watched her continue to pick up the flowers. _'She clearly knows I am a ninja! I never took off my forehead protector!'_ Thinking quickly, Naruto decided that if the girl wasn't attacking him, then she wasn't an immediate threat and he could try to learn something from her. Naruto frowned in thought as the girl continued to pick flowers, _'Why is she picking flowers? Maybe they are herbs for something? I wonder what she needs herbs for…'_ Too shy to ask, even though he really wanted too, he continued to sit silently.

"So how come you are out here so early in the morning?" The girl asked, looking over at him.

"N-No particular reason. H-How come you're out here?"

"My important person was hurt pretty bad. So I am picking these, to help with their recover."

"O-Oh, w-would you like s-some help?" He offered, wondering how her important person got hurt.

"Sure, thank you." Naruto immediately stood up, advoiding his own traps. He watch the girl at first, seeing how she pulled out the plant. After a few minutes, he understood what to do and started copying her movements.

"U-Um miss, how did you learn so much about plants?" Naruto asked curiously, so that he could learn himself, _'it would make for a good skill in the field.'_

"I like to read in my spare time, there are many amazing books out there on herbalism." The girl replied, Naruto noted that her voice was very soothing. Naruto didn't particularly like reading, but if it was this helpful in the field, he would work to read more in his free time along with training. "If you like, I could write down some books for you to get started on?" The girl suggested generously.

"T-That would be n-nice." Naruto colored, and went back to picking herbs in silent. It continue this way for several moments, but then the girl came up with her own questions that she had of Naruto.

"So you're a ninja right?"

"Y-Yes." Naruto replied, knowing that there was no use in lying.

The girl leaned in closer to him, Naruto, causing a small blush to recover his face, as the girl continued to stare at him. Finally after several minutes, she must have found what she wanted in his sky-like eyes, because she asked, "Do you have someone important to you? Who you would do anything for?"

Naruto was unsure of how to answer, that was a really personal question, his blush deepened. Yea, he did have an important person that meant quite a bit to him, but he didn't know if answering was a good idea. _'It's not like she asked who his important person was right? Surely it wouldn't hurt…'_

"I-I do." She smiled brightly, thrusting something into his hand. When he glanced down, he realized it was a paper with several words on it, _'o-oh!'_ "T-Thank you."

She nodded and observed the sky, "I believe that when a person has an important person to protect, that that's when that person becomes truly strong, don't you agree?" Naruto looked up at the sky too, seeing two birds flying around in a circle. They looked as if they were playing. He found himself agreeing.

"Yea."

Naruto was again aimlessly walking around the village, looking for any signs of Team Eight. He had bit of a blush on his face, after he had left the small flower patch in the forest. _'How was I to know that she was actually a he?'_ Suddenly he caught part of a conversation,

"I heard Tazuna-san even hired his own ninja!" Spoke a deep voiced man in a whisper to a woman, Naruto was lucky to be close enough to hear.

"Really?" She gasped at him.

"Yup… he even letting them stay at his house, at the end of the village."

"He's crazy! Gatō won't act kindly to that!" The woman whispered with uneasiness. Naruto filed the name away for later use, and left the couple to their woes, before they caught him prying.

Naruto quickly made his way towards the end of the village and praising his good luck. As he made his way towards the end of the village, he noticed a subtle change in the homes around him. The further he went to the end, the newer the homes looked. Granted, they didn't look way better, but they were a far cry compared to the inner village. Naruto paused briefly when happening upon the house, the couple had mentioned.

He could tell that the people who had hired Team Eight were likely the richest in the town. The house wasn't a mansion or even a fairly big house. But it was the first home, that he seen with two-stories, that needed very little repairs to be done.

"Naruto!?" shouted a voice, causing Naruto to jump and a crash to sound in the house in front of him. Naruto turned to see Kiba, with Akamaru sitting upon his head, walking up to him. "I thought I smelled traces of someone familiar! But I thought it was just me being homesick! What the hell are you doing here?" Naruto blushed, wishing that it hadn't been Kiba to find him first; he had very little experience with the boy, and had no clue on how to react to the boy. _'He's kind a like Hinata in his straightforwardness.'_

Naruto didn't bother answering, knowing he had no good response for being so far out of Konoha without his team or sensei, or really anybody for that matter. He was hopeful that Kiba would just let him go, but it didn't seem likely. The other boy seemed keen on getting an answer. Luckily or unluckily for him though, the cause of the crash in the house, came outside to investigate Kiba's strange shout.

"NARUTO-KUN!?" Hinata shouted, even louder than Kiba had before. "What are you doing here? You're not our back up are you?" Hinata looked over at Kiba and made a shooing motion at him. Kiba huffed and walked away, back towards the house, Akamaru still placed upon his head. Hinata then grabbed Naruto's arm and tugged him to another small forest clearing, a fair distance away from the house.

She then sat down on the grass, gazing in wonderment at him and gestured to the grass. He blushed and sat down beside her. For several moments they sat in quiet, with him lost in his thoughts and her patiently waiting him out.

"Y-You're okay."

"Yea, of course. You sound relieved. What happened? Are you okay? Don't cry, ninjas are not supposed to cry you know. Not on missions anyways."

"I-I saw the scroll, that was sent back to the village. A-And it said that someone of Team Eight was badly injured, while traveling to the Land of Waves. I immediately thought the worse!" Naruto took a shaky breath, overjoyed to see that Hinata was perfectly fine.

"You didn't see all of it then. If you had, you would have known that it was Kurenai-sensei. We meet with a Jounin leveled missing-nin and the battle got very messy really fast. Kurenai-sensei had successfully gotten the other ninja trapped in a genjustu but the man was still able to land a pretty bad hit on her. We were fortunate, that she was able to hit him just as badly and that a hunter-nin finished him off!" Naruto swallowed, feeling guilty that he was graceful that it had been Kurenai and not Hinata. "Afterwards, we had to carry Kurenai-sensei to Tazuna-san house! It was terrible."

"H-How's your sensei now?"

"She's better; she finally woke up yesterday and was able to send out a backup message to Konoha. This brings us back to why you are here." Hinata gently said as she laid her piercing white eyes on him. She took in his wet blue eyes and the black rings around the bottom of his eyes. "You're an idiot, you know that? You dropped everything and rushed here, with hardly a thought."

Naruto blushed, "I-I was worried!"

"And I appreciate it. But when did I become some princess who needed to be saved and you the knight in shining armor? You have to have more faith in me." Hinata commented back and lying back on the grass, looking up at the sky. "Listen, I am a full-fledge ninja now and so are you. You can't be rushing out of the village, every time something goes wrong on a mission of mine." Naruto frowned, knowing she was right but still reluctant to agree. Hinata sat back up, with passion, "Do you not knowledge my skills as a ninja, Naruto?! Because if not, I'll gladly challenge you to a duel, right now! I'll prove that I am an amazing kunoichi!"

"N-No! That's not it! I know you're great! I am sorry okay? I shouldn't have doubted your team. You'll make a great kunoichi, and I shouldn't worry-"

"You're not getting it. It's fine to be protective; it's a good trait to have. The problem is you're being _over protective_. Trust in me more okay? If I am ever in danger, to the point I need your help, I'll tell you okay? That's your time to be protective of me, and same goes for you. You'll tell me when you need help also. It doesn't matter what okay? Otherwise, we won't get in the way, because we are both amazing ninjas in our own right and we need to trust one another to be able to take care of ourselves. Look." She showed him her right hand, her two long fingers making a cross of sorts. "We can also say that we need help like this okay? Just in case, we can't speak or something." Naruto nodded, amazed at her intelligence like always.

Hinata settled back down, to stare at the heavens. "And another lesson, I am going to need to teach you, Naruto-kun. Don't you ever drop everything you love and dream for, just for one person, not even me. While it sounds noble, it honestly _isn't_. To be so devoted to someone, to the point where your own interests do not matter is a sad existence. There's a difference between putting your own interests aside, and throwing them away understand?" Naruto didn't completely understand, but he nodded anyways getting the gist of it. "Finally, don't get so invested in your own interests that you become heart less. None of that is good."

Naruto nodded understanding that part the best, "It's good to have a strong middle ground." He joined her, lying back, watching the clouds. Their arms slightly touched and his hand almost covered hers in the grass. He didn't touch her much more than that though, knowing it was a bad idea. "H-Hinata." She looked over at him, with a dark blueish eyebrow raised and he looked right back at her, his cerulean eyes looking intently at her white pearl ones.

"If I got locked away, what would you do?" She rolled her eyes at his question and he blushed, still expecting an answer.

"Don't be melodramatic. You didn't do anything terribly wrong; you'll likely get a smacked on the wrist, some community service maybe. Though, if they did lock you away, I would _so_ lead a protest against the unfair treatment." He smiled at the answer, grateful that she cared about what could happen to him.

"We better get back, Kiba-kun likely foaming at the mouth, wondering what's taking us so long to talk." Hinata said, not moving from her spot on the grass. Naruto laughed lightly at the joke, staying where he was also. He didn't want to leave the comfortable atmosphere that they had set around themselves. "Shino-kun likely set bugs out to find us, and I bet they already tracked us down and are now telling him, where we are."

Naruto sighed, not liking that their peaceful moment would be over soon. At least he was able to store the memory away in his heart, for the rest of his life. Hinata stood up and offered him her hand; he immediately latched on and climbed to his feet. After cleaning the grass and dirty from his black pants, he followed Hinata back to the house.

"I wonder who they are going to send now that you pull this stunt though." Hinata mused as they got closer to the house. Naruto tiled his head slightly, wondering the same, hopeful everything would work out and he wasn't fired or something that would be the worst thing to happen. _'Though I did say I would take any consequences that came from my actions… and I can't go back on my word.'_ So he put on a brave face, ready to deal with anything the rest of Team Eight had to say and do, along with putting up with anything that the back-up might do.

As they neared the house, they could see Kiba outside petting Akamaru on his lap. Before they got any closer, Kiba's nose twitched and he immediately looked over at them. Kiba put Akamaru on his head and jumped up to stroll over to them. "Now can I ask what he's doing here? Why does it have to such a huge secret!?" The canine boy demanded, while Akamaru barked his agreement. Naruto flushed and looked at his feet, not willing to explain why he had come all the way here, it was rather embarrassing actually.

"He was just being an idiot. I am sure whoever coming as back-up will deal with him when they get here, in the meanwhile, let's go inside and eat." Kiba huffed at the half-assed answer, and followed them back to the house.

"Well, I am sure sensei will want to know everything also." The other two didn't reply to the tattooed boy, and all three entered the home. Naruto immediately took in the details of the household, as they slipped off their shoes in the doorway. It wasn't just the outside of the house that needed repairs. The inside was also filled with heavily needed ones too. The walls had several small cracks, and some of the paint was peeling off. The floor also showed some cracks here and there.

Naruto frowned; finding it slightly strange that a construct worker would have such a poorly kept household. Even with poverty hanging about, the house shouldn't be this bad off. _'I shouldn't judge the family to severely, Hinata said he building something, maybe the man been too busy to keep up his house.'_ Naruto followed the other two into the kitchen area of the house, where two women were. One of them was seated at the table; the other was setting the table.

The first woman had long black wild hair and bright red eyes that startled Naruto a bit, having never seen such eyes. Naruto didn't believe she was dressed in her normal ninja outfit, since she was dressed somewhat casual. She was in a loose red t-shirt and light blue jean shorts. _'Is she unable to wear her normal getup because of her injuries?'_ Naruto already placed her as Kurenai, Team Eight's sensei, because of her blue Konoha forehead protector on her head.

The other woman had long blue-colored hairs that sort of remind Naruto of Hinata's hair. The lady was dressed in a simple rosy pink shirt with red lining the collar and the end of her sleeves. She also wore a long navy skirt. Naruto assumed she was part of the older man's family, and smiled bashfully at her when she glanced at him, her black eyes filled with kindness. Hinata tugged at his dark gray jacket, bringing his attention to that fact that she and Kiba were already seated at the table.

Naruto quickly joined them, as the woman who set the table yelled up the stairs that lunch was ready. After half a minute pasted, a young boy of eight came into the small kitchen area. The boy had short spiky black hair that framed his head and seemed to have inherited the older woman's dark eyes. The child was dressed in olive colored overalls and a creamy shirt, and on top of his head sat a white striped hat. The boy sat next to Naruto at the table, and the woman sat next to Kurenai. The table did a quick blessing and dug into the food.

Naruto briefly wondered where the old man, Hinata mentioned, and Shino were, but clearly dismissed the thought. He realized that it was midday and that the man was likely working and Shino was with the man, protecting him. _'I wonder why they let Shino guard the old man all by himself. If they were worried about a Jounin missing-nin, shouldn't more than one Genin be guarding the man? Plus even though she injured, shouldn't Kurenai-sensei be dressed in more action-packed clothing, just in case?'_ There were several pieces missing of the puzzle, and Naruto didn't feel comfortable with that fact.

Naruto turned to Kurenai-sensei when she addressed him, "There's much that we have to discuss, Naruto. I can't say I am pleased with you being here. But I am sure that Hinata gave you enough of dressing down, though there's still some details that I'd like to know and I would also like to fill you on more details of this mission. Even though I am not happy to see you here, I might as well use you to help out around here." Naruto fidgeted in his seat and ducked his head, nodding his understanding.

Naruto ate silently, still taking in the details of the house. The kitchen was also in a fairly bad shape. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if some of the utilities were in bad shape as well. Seeing the house the way it was, really drove some of Hinata's point from earlier home. _'I am sure the old man hasn't meant to let his own interests get in the way of his family own needs. He a constructor and his likely more worried at the moment about whatever he's building. Maybe it's something helpful to the village? His family doesn't seem to mind the state they are living in…'_ Naruto recalled the green-eyed girl and decided if that's what the man was doing, he had a lot of respect for him then. _'Though, the man should have found more of a middle ground…'_

Naruto finished off his plate and sent a wary smile over to the woman to thank her for the food. The woman nodded back, with her own smile as she started to pick up the plates around the table. Kurenai cleared her throat, gathering his attention again and tiled her head for him to follow her. They both stood up and she led him into a ground floor room, spying a familiar bag next to the door, with several other bags, Naruto concluded that this must be where Team Eight was staying. Naruto couldn't prevent the distasteful frown on his face, but he quickly diverted his thoughts. Shino and Kiba were not his competitors; he wasn't even in the race.

Kurenai sat down on a bedroll, and faced him. Naruto decided it would better to remain standing, and with his head bowed, bashfully stared at her back between his spiky golden locks. Naruto slightly jumped when a white owl, with beaming red eyes landed on Kurenai's left shoulder. "This is Engimono." Naruto blinked at the pun, and quickly try to focus on Kurenai. "Imagine my surprise when he returned with a scroll from the Hokage, explaining me that I should expect you sometime soon. He explained to me why you would be here, I am sure that Hinata got that out of you as well, and set the record straight. So this is not what I wish to speak to you about." Naruto fiddled uncertainly, undoubtedly wondering what else he could tell the lady, if she already knew everything anyways.

"What I wish to know is you're abilities and what use they'll be to me. From scraps of conversation between Hinata and Kiba, I get the feeling in the academy, you had poor charka control. Is this still true, or has Kakashi gotten around to fixing that yet?" Naruto flushed, giving the answer to Kurenai indirectly. "Alright then, that's what we should be doing for the rest of the four days… Hinata has really good charka control, and I am sure she wouldn't mind teaching you to control yours at least a bit better." _'We have four days, four days until what?'_

Kurenai gestured for him to sit, and begin to explain the mission to him in detail. "Our job is to protect Tazuna-san, who you'll meet later tonight, while he finishes that great bridge that you saw on your way here. Originally we thought we were only protecting him from bandits and the like, until we were attacked by Chunin leveled ninja on the way down here." Naruto nodded understanding, why they didn't just quit the mission then and there. _'I don't believe my team would have either. I don't know any Konoha ninja to be that heart less.'_

"After we got close to the village though, we were intercepted by another missing-nin, who goes by the name of Momochi Zabuza. This man is ranked as a SS missing-nin in the bingo book, and therefore considered highly dangerous. Even someone with my skill was only able to hold him back for a few minutes. Granted now that I am use to his fighting style, I should be able to fight him on par ground. Sadly I do not believe I will be fit to fight by the time we meet with the man again, which is why I called for back-up." Naruto frowned in confusion, _'didn't Hinata say the man was dead now?'_

"Ah, I see you're confused. I am guessing Hinata told you that the man was killed by a hunter-nin. I don't think it was that simple though, the hunter-nin was highly suspicious. Since I also wasn't able to check that the missing-nin was actually dead either, I am going to assume that the man is not yet dead. I believe the man is likely injured like me, is resting a few days. I am giving the man a week tops, before he makes another move. Though he could attack again, sooner, therefore I have been sending out Shino to protect the man in the meantime." Naruto nodded, accepting her point, _'a ninja should always expect the worse.'_ "Alright, now back up should be here at some point today, and I'd like to make a point in saying that you are extremely lucky that the Hokage isn't stripping you of your ninja status." Naruto gulped, he was glad that the worst possible thing that could happen to him wasn't going to occur.

Kurenai dismissed him, and he quickly left the bedroom. Naruto silently made his way back to the kitchen, before he made it there though, he heard a small noise. Naruto estimated that he wouldn't have heard it at all, luckily his quietness tend to help his hearing quite a bit. He paced his footsteps expertly to make no sound, as he ascended the stairs. He paused at the door of the room, the noise emitted from. He quickly recognized the sound, now that he was closer to the source, _'crying?'_ His better judgement being pushed aside, his curiousness taking over; he gently pushed the door open. He paused, seeing the young boy from earlier, facing away from him looking outward to the ocean.

He pondered if he should do something, knowing that one always felt better after being comforted. Shallowing his nerves, he spoke with timid voice, "A-Are you alright?" The boy jumped and looked back at Naruto with a glare. Naruto caught a glimpse of a piece of picture that dropped from the boy's hands. Recalling a family photo, that had been missing quarter of it; he pieced together that the small picture now on the floor, belonged to that photo downstairs. Placing that puzzle together helped him piece together another one, when he looked at the boy's stricken face.

"T-That's your dad r-right? I-I don't know what happened b-but, you miss him. I k-know how that feels. M-Missing someone, that'll never return." Naruto bent down and picked up the photo piece and generously handed it back to the young boy. The boy snatched it from him, Naruto shocked, clasped his hands in front of himself, nervously. "I-I am s-sorry."

"You can't possible understand my feelings! No one can!" The boy almost shouted in anger, clutching his own hands around the photo piece.

Naruto's eyes narrowed in annoyance, "I-I think m-many people understand your pain… I-In fact, s-some of them could be here n-now." Naruto's voice broke in a soft whisper that the boy could hardly hear, "You a-aren't anyone special." Naruto use to grief, knew there was nothing at the moment he could do for the boy, so he left the room and made his way back downstairs.

He almost ran into the woman from the kitchen, he quickly stepped aside to let her through, with a quiet sorry. Instead she paused and spoke to him with a whisper, "You must have spoken with Inari. You'll have to excuse his temper; he really hasn't been himself since his father died." Naruto nodded shyly acknowledging her explanation. Then he left her in the hallway so that he could continue onwards down the stairs.

Naruto made it back to the kitchen, to see that only Hinata was still seated at the table. She looked up at him as he sat down across from her. "I see you met Inari-san, he such a baby. Kind a like you are sometimes." Naruto flushed in embarrassment, glad that no one else was around to hear her comment. "So… finished talking with Kurenai-sensei right? What did she want?" Naruto quickly explained what Kurenai wanted Hinata to teach him. Hinata frowned.

"Didn't I already teach you methods a long time ago on how to learn how to control you're charka?" Naruto nodded, but then explained.

"W-We were so young then though, and I never really understood you're quick explaining then." He squeaked at the end, clearly embarrassed about his lack of understanding. Hinata huffed and stood up.

"You should have said something then idiot! Why didn't you?" She folded her arms in irritation and stared at him. Naruto bowed his head and didn't answer, and she huffed again. "I hate when you do that." She waited another few minutes, letting the awkward silence settle in around them. Naruto peeked up at her white circles that were filled with annoyance. _'I hate when she mad with me…'_ He fidgeted, and looked back down at his sandal. _'How long is she going to wait for an answer?'_

Finally with another puff of air, Hinata raged, "Fine! Stand up!" He quickly did as she commanded and followed her outside, where he found where the missing Kiba had gone. Clearly the boy enjoyed spending his time outside, playing with Akamaru. Hinata didn't spare a passing glance at the boy though, instead continued onward to the forest clearing from before. Kiba did stop his playing though, and gave Naruto a glare. Clearly the other boy wasn't happy that Naruto had upset his teammate. Naruto didn't meet the challenge though; instead he tumbled after his furious friend, keeping his head down sheepishly.

Naruto quickened his pace, as Hinata continued to get further away from him. He wished she would calm down, but he knew she had a right to be anger. Sighing miserably, he wasn't going to enjoy this training session.

Before they got to the forest clearing though, a voice yelled, "NARUTO!" Naruto and Hinata stopped in surprise and stopped at the shout. Before either one of them could truly take in the shock, Naruto was tackled to the ground by the source and promptly punched hard in the face.

 **AN: I am sure, several you know who punched him, if not, next time! Anyways, normally I will try not to add an author's note, unless I have to address something important. Here's what I have to address this time though. Please respect me when making a review. This is the only time I will say something in this story, I expect critics. But I want it respectfully. Flames will be dealt with accordingly. Oh and point out any mistakes, I don't have a beta or anything (making use of Word, but that only goes so far). Otherwise, thank you guys for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed the second chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Twisted C3 – Words: 10,158

Naruto was dazed as he opened his eyes. At first he could only see bright colors blended like a mixing pot, the only color that seemed to stick out was hues of pink. He blinked in confusion several times, and suddenly it became very clear. _'Sakura-chan? Why is she here? What's going on? Ugh… my head hurts.'_ It was clearly Sakura though, sitting on him with her fist raised high. Her long pink hair framed around her face, which was set in anger.

Kakashi and Sasuke were also there, standing several inches away from them. He could almost feel the disappointment raiding off his sensei; Naruto winced inwardly at the look. Sasuke also seemed to give off his own disapproval, glaring at Naruto. _'Like that guy can be disapproving of me.'_ Naruto scoffed quietly, so no one could hear him, thinking of what Sasuke's goal in life was. He glanced back up at Sakura, wondering how he would get her off of him. _'When I dreamt about girls being on top of me… This isn't what I pictured honestly…'_ Naruto's cheeks colored rosy pink at the impure thoughts. He watched as Sakura puffed out air with her fist still held high, clearly wanting to hit him again.

"Sakura-chan, seriously get off him!" Hinata stormed over and pulled the other girl roughly back to her feet. Naruto reacted instantly, leaping to his feet, and backing a bit away from the girls. Hinata didn't let go of Sakura's arm, instead she continued to rant. "I understand being anger about his insubordination, but seriously? You can't just go hitting him! That's a poor way to treat your teammate!"

"You are talking to me about bad teamwork?! He left without _permission_ and no word to any of us!" Sakura fumed right back at the blue-haired girl.

"I am not saying what he did was right! I am saying that you can't hit your own teammates!" Naruto sighed as he watched the point go right over Sakura head, causing both girls to continue in their heated debate. He jumped slightly when he felt Kakashi place a hand on his shoulder. His sensei tilted his head in a follow me motion and led Naruto further away from the other three.

They stopped right before the entrance of the forest; Naruto took in the lime green setting around them, and the calm breeze of the ocean. It was truly beautiful in the Land of Waves, if one could look past the suffering of the habitants of the small country. Naruto peeked up at his sensei, who had not spoken a word yet. Instead the older male continued to stare a hole into Naruto. The boy could feel his cheeks heat up, and he started to fidget. _'I am not looking forward to another lecture… even if this is my fault…'_

"You need to control your temper." Naruto blinked, not expecting that type of lecture. He clasped his hands together in front of him, and twiddled his thumbs together. _'I thought he would say something along the line of teamwork?'_ "If you had better management of your anger, you would've been able to think out a better plan. Your emotions should never completely control what you are doing. While it is admirable to want do everything in your power to protect your comrades, if that power isn't applied right you could just end up making everything worse." Naruto looked up abruptly when he caught movement at the corner of his eye, to see Kakashi leaning closer to him.

"Your plan to come here on your own has already caused many issues, and likely more to come. For instance, instead of the Third Hokage sending a more advance team to help out here, now he had to send us. Thus putting not only our team in danger but also places Team Eight in a dangerous situation. Lucky for us, that the missing-nin is only a Rank-A1. Imagine if the opposing ninja was stronger, and the only team that the Hokage could send was another Genin team? You could have killed all of us." Naruto's eyes widened, realizing what a huge mess he had caused. _'What if Hinata had died because of me?'_ He could feel as reality came crashing down on him, almost as if his heart was being sucked out of him. Hinata could not die, especially because of him, Naruto _wouldn't allow it_.

Naruto almost leaped out of his skin, when he felt Kakashi's hand on his shoulder. He took a deep breath and focused his misty blue eyes on his sensei. "I can see that you have seen the error of your ways. Hopefully you remember this lesson, in later missions. But just in case, here's your punishment…"

Naruto could feel his breath being swapped away for a whole another reason, as his sensei detailed his punishment. His cheeks drained of its usual healthy pink, becoming completely pale. "Do you understand?" Naruto gulped and nodded, his eyes were now filled with misery. _'They are going to kill me…'_ Kakashi stood back up to his full height, his only showing eye filled with slowly fading disappointment. Naruto didn't take note; instead his thoughts were miles away as he followed the sliver-haired man back to his team, and Hinata.

The girls had stopped bickering by the time they made their way back to them. Both of the girls had flushed cheeks, clearly still frizzled. Sakura's cheeks were slightly puffed up and she kept glancing at Hinata, as if she wanted to say something else. Slightly behind the young kunoichi, was Sasuke who had his arms crossed in clear frustration, the boy's attitude didn't catch Naruto's attention for once though. Instead the younger boy continued to stare blankly forward.

Slightly away from Sakura, stood Hinata, the blue-haired girl didn't bother acknowledging the angry expressions sent her away from the other girl. What the scarcely older kunoichi choose to observe in its place was Naruto. She took in the downcast faded blue eyes, and the slumped back and reddening clashed fists at his sides. Taking in all the info she could from his form, her anger levels were again filled and redirected to the man who stood in front of Naruto. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her, setting off Hinata's fumes.

"What did you do?" She hissed, startling Sakura and Sasuke out of their own realities into the present. Both looked over at their sensei and teammate, taking in the scenery. Neither was in the mood to address their teammate though, focusing all their attention onto Kakashi.

Hinata took a deep breath and continued to glare down the man. Kakashi didn't react to the question, taking Hinata's heated gaze with a quiet at ease aura. This didn't help to stemmer down Hinata's anger; instead it was like pouring oil on fire. She clutched her fists and puffed out another breath. She took several steps towards Kakashi, intending to give him a piece of her mind for causing turmoil in her friend.

Her wrist was grasped gently and she was tugged to a stop. The words that she had prepared had gone motionless in her throat. Hinata looked to the hand holding her arm, then towards Naruto, whose face was a cherry red. Then with a soft tone he spoke so that only she could hear. "I-I'm fine." He watched as she took in his facial features. For a few moments, they stared at one another, and Naruto started to feel highly uncomfortable under her analyzing gaze. Finally she nodded and tugged her wrist softly out of his grasp, hiding her face from him.

"We only have a few more hours left of the day; we should take what time we have left to work on chakra control." Hinata huffed and started to continue her way towards the forest clearing.

"Ah, perfect! How about Sakura and Sasuke go with you guys? They could all afford a crash course in controlling their chakra." Kakashi cheerfully stated, seeming to completely dismiss what occurred several seconds prior. Sasuke and Sakura weren't nearly as skillful in hiding their emotions. Sasuke was scowling, but whether it was because of the antics from his peers or because his sensei insulted his chakra control, was unclear. Sakura, on the other hand was frowning thoughtfully at Hinata and Naruto, trying to understand their relations. Hinata paused and looked back at Kakashi. She frowned and considered the offer that was made. Before she could give her answer though, Kakashi turned from the group and waved.

"I am going to go get debriefed, good luck on your training guys! I'll fill you all more on the mission later alright?" Kakashi said to his team, continuing onward towards the house.

Hinata grimaced and then shouted for Team Seven to follow her.

Naruto tugged along gingerly as he followed everyone to the clearing that he and Hinata had inhabited earlier. Hinata had stopped them in front of a line of trees in the clearing; she leaned back against one of the trees, studying his team. Before she could begin the training though, Sasuke spoke up.

"Why do we have to learn from you? I doubt you know any more than us." He sneered out. Naruto prevented a huff of annoyance at the comment, _'how dare he talk like that to Hinata!'_ Hinata smiled sweetly at the remark though, and calmly turned to face the tree, then promptly walked right up the tree. Naruto, familiar with the technique, watched his teammates' reactions to Hinata's ascent.

Sakura was frowning, her green eyes narrowed in annoyance at being bested by the loud-mouth Hinata. While Sasuke was folding his arms again, his dark eyes trained on the blue-haired girl. Instead of annoyance shining through the older boy's eyes, there was a whole new type of shine in them. Naruto creased his forehead in thought, wondering what that new look in the other boy's eyes meant.

Hinata grinned confidently down at them. "So… Mr. Top of Our Class, how about you climb up this tree?" Sasuke frowned in thought, and then took a deep breath, clearly self-assured in his abilities. _'He's clearly thinking that if Hinata can do it, he can. Dumbass.'_ Sasuke walked up to the tree next to Hinata's tree, and gathered his chakra. Out of the corner of Naruto's eye he could see that Hinata had veins popping out angrily around her big rounded white eyes. Inside the white pupils were even more veins, that gave the impression that her eyes were cracked. Naruto understanding what she was doing continued to watch Sasuke as he try to climb the tree.

The overly confident shinobi backed up a few feet, and then at a run, charged at the tree. He made it up several steps before his foot indented the tree, then he fell back down to the ground. Naruto was disappointed when Sasuke didn't fall on his butt, but instead landed like a graceful feline. Sasuke's perfect landing didn't stir Hinata off from laughing her butt off; her eyes now back to their normal state. Her chuckle caused Naruto to also let out a small snicker, he was also glad to see the genius fail at something. _'That'll knock his ego down a few pins. Serves the bastard right.'_

To Naruto's astonishment, their laughter caused Sasuke to beam a small scarlet. The coloring didn't stay for very long though, it was gone almost immediately. The reaction made Naruto feel slightly guilty for making fun of his teammate. That feeling wasn't long lasting though, when he remembered the way Sasuke treated everyone around him. The older boy needed to be shown the error of his ways, and Naruto felt that Hinata was good for that.

Naruto startled out of his thoughts when he heard a smacking noise from above him. His eyes instantly looked towards the sound, causing them to widen at what they were taking in. Hinata's face had been thrown sideways from a slap to her cheek, leaving a reddening imprint of a hand there.

He could feel his skin bristling at the scene, and his darken blue eyes stared keenly at the offending hand and its owner. Hinata spared him a glance stopping him, before addressing the situation before her. Sakura blew out angrily and glared her olive eyes into Hinata's white ones. Her pink hair flowed gently from the small breeze around them, while her red qipao dress rustled against the wind. Hinata wasn't one to take being hit sitting down, and she showed it. She punched Sakura in retaliation, and much harder than the slap had been. Hinata's fist smashed right into Sakura's nose, causing it to leak some blood.

Naruto's eyes widened when Sakura tackled Hinata and sent both of them tumbling to the ground. In a blink of an eye, their evening went from training session to one outright brawl. Naruto felt flustered in what he should do. Hinata had made it pretty clearly she didn't want him to get involved, but could he really just watch the girls fight? They were all on the same side, for crying out loud!

Naruto looked over to see what Sasuke wanted to do about the situation, only to see that other boy was in his own world again. Instead of trying to deal with the situation, Sasuke was working on his chakra control and trying to walk up his tree. _'That fucking idiot!'_ Naruto decided to forget about his self-centered teammate to work on his other comrades.

Hinata was now sitting on Sakura, who was thrusted down on to her stomach. Hinata had her fist entwined with Sakura's long rosy hair. Hinata was leaned forward whispering into the other girl's ear. _'I wonder what she saying…'_ Naruto took in Sakura's watery eyes, and decided whatever Hinata was saying that it wasn't polite at all. _'Ugh, this is terrible. I have never been so torn.'_

Exhausted of the scene and how it pulled at his sanity levels, Naruto left the forest clearing. _'It's not like I need to work on walking up a tree…'_ He chuckled at the thought that he also knew more than Sasuke in chakra control. _'Maybe when Hinata is calmer, I'll have her teach me the other stages of chakra control…'_ He sighed, remembering why he hadn't asked her to continue to teach him, so many years ago now. He frowned, continuing on further into the forest, remembering being taught by Hinata, brought on other memories. Many of the memories filled him with great pain.

Sighing, he settled himself down by a tree, clutching his heart. _'I've been hurt so many times in my life, but I think the pain in my chest is always the worse. It doesn't seem to heal either. It's like a permanent tear in my heart…'_ He grimaced at the intense thought, but then chuckled. _'Hinata isn't wrong; I really am very dramatic…'_ Rubbing the left side of his chest, he lost himself in his memories.

 _A girl of nine years sat in a patch of flowers staring intently up at the treetops. She was dressed very unladylike, in a white t-shirt and blue shorts, her short blue hair flowing gently against the calm breeze around her. Her face was masked in a huge smile, "You did it! That's so amazing! I am proud of you, Naruto-kun." She exclaimed towards a young boy up on a very high tree branch._

 _The young boy was covered in many bruises from falling down the very same tree. His dark blue shorts were tattered at the bottom, and his black t-shirt had a newly formed tear on his left side, caused from being caught by a branch one of the times he had fallen. The skin that was exposed from the gash was covered in a poorly applied bandage. His golden hair was tousled, and upon his face was a small smile._

 _Naruto jumped down from the tree, landing right next to Hinata, who had moved from her position and was now standing almost directly under the tree. She grabbed him into a tight hug, "Good job, Naruto-kun!" Naruto's cheeks burned and he hesitantly put his arms around her._

" _T-Thank you, H-Hinata-chan."_

" _NARUTO-KUN! I talked to you about this." Hinata pulled out of his grasp and scowled at him. He turned his face from her, the burning on his cheeks spreading to his entire face. Hinata didn't like being referred to as cute._ _ **'But she also doesn't like me to use –sama either! It feels wrong to refer to her without an honorific though.'**_ _Committing himself to his fate, he uttered a shy apologize._

" _Good! Now listen, climbing up a tree with your feet is just the first step. Next is learning to walk on water! Mother taught me this a while ago! I am sure I can teach you too! It was bit harder than the tree climbing, but I got it pretty fast I like to think! Mother was pretty impressed actually! She told me that it usually took longer than a week to get water walking down, but it only took me a day!" Naruto couldn't help the smile that formed on his face as Hinata rambled on about her mother. Sometimes he was jealous of Hinata's family making him wish for his very own family. This feeling was usually washed away quickly though, by gratitude._

 _Hearing about someone else family, made it easier to imagine his own. He had meet Hinata's mother many times now, and she was wonderful mother. She made them so many yummy treats and her ointment was amazing._ _ **'I wish I had a mother like Hinata's. Maybe mine was just like hers?'**_ _Remembering Hinata's mother, made Naruto think of another aspect of Hinata's family. Thus bringing back to what he had set out to do today._

" _Right! So it's still pretty early in the day, Naruto-kun. So why don't we continue with training alright? I think I saw a waterfall, close to here; it shouldn't take us to long to get there either. I'll explain what you have to do with your chakra, while we make our way towards the waterfall okay? That should save us some time!" Naruto nodded his understanding of her plan, trying to form his very own._

 _Hinata smiled, grabbing his hand, and leading him towards the waterfall. He made a feebly attempt to prevent his cheeks from blooming into a bright red again. Then with a heavy heart, pulled his hand from her hold and walked in line with her, instead of behind. Hinata looked over at him in confusion, and if he was better at reading people, he would have seen the hurt in her round white eyes.  
Looking away from Naruto, Hinata started in on her explaining of how water walking worked. "While in walking up the tree, you only had to continually create the same amount of necessary chakra to your feet, its bit different with water walking. For you to walk on water, you have to send chakra to your feet that matches the weight of your body. Make sense?" __**'Not really…'**_

" _Y-Yea." Naruto paused, causing Hinata to stop along with him. She looked at him with confusion. "I-In fact, m-maybe I can do it myself?"_

" _What?" Hinata's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Do it by yourself? What do you mean?"_

 _Clasping his hands in front himself, Naruto took a deep breath, "I-I wish t-to train by myself." After sharing his plans, he looked down at his feet, hiding his face. He was sure it was masked in remorse._

" _You... don't want my help?" Naruto didn't know how to respond to the hurt in her voice, so he just stood there, with his head bowed as she gazed at him. "FINE! WHATEVER! DON'T COME CRYING TO ME, WHEN YOU CAN'T GET IT RIGHT!" He had looked up at her yelling, but he couldn't see Hinata's face. She already had run off, so all he saw was her back disappearing into the trees._

 _Naruto was filled with guilt at his only friend running away from him. Unsure of what he should do now, he continued towards the waterfall. He stopped at the edge of the forest, taking in the huge river before him. Finally with heavy steps, he walked to river, listening to the rushing of the water, that fall down from the cliff. He sat down at the edge of the water, slipping off his dark sandals and plugging his feet into the stream. Bringing up his knees to his chest, he placed his head upon them and looked out at the forest around him. His eyes were in a daze, while hot drops of salty water fell from them._

" _I am a terrible person." He whispered quietly to the air, as he recalled Hinata's hurt voice and the way the villagers' treated him._ _ **'Maybe they all hate me because they knew that I only bring hurt to everyone around me?'**_ _He clutched the sides of his t-shirt, watching the river as it flowed rapidly._ _ **'It would be so easy… to just be simply washed away by the current. No one would miss me, not even Hinata.'**_ _He leaned forward towards the river, copulating if it would be all better if he was gone._

" _What are you doing?" A girl's voice spoke from behind him. Jumping at her suddenness, he looked over at a light pink-haired girl standing directly behind him. He found her hair to be very unique. It was very short, to the point that it only reached her shoulders. Some of her hair though was held back from her face, by a red ribbon, showing off her forehead. She was dressed in a red one piece swimming suit. Her light green eyes seemed to study him, intently._

 _Naruto wasn't confused on who she was though; he had seen her in class quite a few times. He quickly ran through the list of girl names he had heard in the classroom._ _ **'Was it Sakura? Hmm… fits her hair.'**_

" _You're ruining your shorts you know, putting them in the water like that." Naruto blinked, realizing that his legs were now in the river. He must have pushed them in when he was lost in thought. He bit his lip when he recalled what he had been thinking earlier, he was lucky that Sakura had come just then. "Though it doesn't really matter since your shorts seem to be ruined already. So I guess it be okay if you swam in them. You shouldn't swim over here though, the current is to strong! I am about to go further down the river to go swimming, you can join me if you want?"_

 _Sakura offered with a gentle smile. Naruto blinked, not expecting her to offer to play with him. Not many people liked to play with him after all._ _ **'She very kind.'**_ _Taking in Sakura's green eyes and beautiful pink hair, he thought that she was also very cute. His heart pounded rapidly though, he wasn't feeling up to being around people at the moment._

" _N-No thank you." He muttered quietly, moving away from the river, preparing to go home. Sakura frowned, for some reason insulted, and stormed off. Luckily though Naruto didn't notice, so his gradually improving mood wasn't demolished. He did watch the young girl walk away from him. He smiled weakly,_ _ **'she's safe. I think I could like her.'**_ _He turned from the stream and made his way to his apartment. He was too tired emotionally to continue training today._

Naruto kept his eyes closed, as he sat leaned up against the tree. _'Though Sakura can be very kind, she led too much by her temper.'_ He rubbed his cheek, remembering. _'Not that I can say I am any better. Kakashi-sensei is right, one shouldn't be so controlled by their emotions it could cause issues in missions.'_ Getting more comfortable against the tree bark, he continued to think about the girls in his life. _'Why is it that both of them have such tempers? They express it so differently, yet so similarly. I wish they could get along…'_ It was hard seeing Hinata and Sakura at odds; they were both very important to him. He wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for them. He peeled his crystal blue eyes open to stare at the sky above him. Instead of white clouds and blue atmosphere, the sky was a charming pink slowly fading into a light orange and red. It was becoming very late. Figuring that he should head back to the house, he stood up, stretching his sore back. _'I must have been sitting here awhile…'_

He grunted, relieved when his back made a satisfying pop. He adjusted his bag around his chest, and started to make his way back. He passed by the forest clearing again, to see that only Sasuke remained. The tree, that the other boy was climbing, was filled with marks from a kunai. Clearly Sasuke had come to the idea, that he should mark his place in the tree. Naruto knew that Hinata would have given him the idea way earlier, but Sasuke seemed to piss Hinata off just as much as he pisses off Naruto.

Sasuke glanced at him as he stepped into the forest clearing, and smirked. _'He obviously thinks he is ahead of me and that I am a total loser. If he only knew…'_ Instead of responding to the smirk, Naruto continued to walk back to the house. He wondered what happened with Hinata and Sakura. He shouldn't have left, he felt like he had failed his comrades by leaving them to fight. But even now, he was confused on how he would fix things between the girls. _'Maybe it's better to leave it to them?'_

Naruto stopped in front of the house, to see that Shino had returned from the bridge. The boy was crouched down in the grass around the house, holding a container of sorts. Naruto blinked, quickly putting the scene together in his mind. Naruto nodded shyly at Shino as he walked by to enter the house. The other boy acknowledged him with a quick glance, and then continued to gather an insect from the grass.

Naruto repeated his routine from earlier, and slipped off his shoes in the entrance and made his way to the kitchen. He wasn't really sure on what he was supposed to do in the house, but he knew that it was dinner time, so everyone was likely there. He paused in the kitchen to see that the table was pretty much full.

Kakashi, Sakura, and Kiba sat on one side of the table while Kurenai, Inari, and his mother on the other side. Seated at the front of the table though, was a man that looked fairly familiar to Naruto. _'Have I seen him before?'_ Dismissing the thought as not important, Naruto refocused on the people in the room. The old man had addressed him.

"So you're the boy who ran all the way here, without permission." Naruto's cheeks beamed scarlet at the remark, and he quickly looked at his feet. "You don't look like much; did you really think you be much of help around here?" Naruto could feel his heart start to thunder with anger at the rude remarks. He didn't speak back though, the old man had every right to be upset, for his first team of ninja had been injured protecting him. Then instead of more advance people being sent out to help protect him, he got another novice group, all because of Naruto.

"I reassure you, that you will be perfectly safe with my team, Tazuna-san." Naruto felt pride at the comment from his sensei. _'He has a lot more faith in us, than I thought.'_ He frowned when Inari scoffed, and stood up from the table, quickly advancing up the stairs. Naruto pushed down the sympathy for the boy though, _'he's just a drama queen.'_

"You'll have to excuse Inari." Inari's mother immediately replied after the boy had departed. Naruto politely tuned it out though, the boy clearly needed to learn manners. Inari's mother then waved at him to take the boy's vacant seat, as she stood to clear Inari's plate. Naruto bashfully nodded his thanks and sat down. The kind woman gave him a new plate to eat from, Naruto smiled at her. _'Inari-san is clearly missing what he has. What a fool. I wish I knew her name, it seems rude to just think of her as Inari-san's mother.'_ He blessed his food, and quickly dug in, he was famished.

Kiba across from him seemed to be just as hunger, for the boy seemed to inhale his food. Though every so often, he would tear a piece of his food, feeding it to Akamaru. Naruto blinked, just now seeing the dog was in Kiba's jacket. _'I need to be better at observing things…'_ Kiba seemed to have felt his gaze, for the boy looked up at him, and glowered at him. _'He can't still be mad at me, because I upset Hinata could he? That was hours ago!'_ Suddenly feeling greatly uncomfortable, Naruto looked down at his food, and ate his food silently but quickly; hopeful that everyone would just forget that he was here.

Naruto finished his food at the same time as Sakura, and unsure of what he should do next, he stood up to follow her to wherever she was going. Sakura didn't seem to mind though; she fell in place beside him. They left the kitchen area, and made their way towards a room that was next door to Team Eight's room. Sakura stopped though, instead of entering the room.

"Actually Naruto… can we talk outside for a minute?" He frowned when he realized that she was whispering. He didn't see why she would; they were completely alone in the hallway. He didn't refuse her though he knew that she didn't like being denied. She quickly retraced her steps towards the front door. He replaced his sandals and followed his teammate outside.

Shino was still out there, the container now holding a bug inside of it. Shino seemed to be observing it. What the boy was trying to get from the insect, Naruto was unsure, but his fellow peer seemed content in studying the bug. So Naruto made a point in not distracting the other boy and continued to follow Sakura to the back of the house. He briefly wondered what was so secret that they had to walk so far away from everyone else.

When they came to the back of the house, he notice that there was a back door, and shook his head in embarrassment, clearly he and Sakura took quite bit of a unnecessary detour to the back of the house. Sakura sat down against the single tree in the backyard and gestured for him to join her sitting there.

"Naruto, I am sorry… again. I shouldn't have hit you earlier alright? I was just so anger! Right after we talked about being better teammates, you immediately went and did something on your own! You should have talk to me or something! I could have helped." Naruto blinked at her apologize in shock. _'Is this Hinata's influence again?'_ Feeling ashamed that he had to again rely on Hinata to help him connect with his teammates, he clutched his hands in his lap. _'I need to take care of these things myself…'_ Naruto exhaled deeply.

"I… I'm s-sorry too."

"Good, we both need to do better otherwise this team will not work! Kakashi showed us that the first day, and we keep messing up." She stuck out her hand towards him, "I promise to keep trying to be a better teammate towards you, Naruto."

"S-Same." He quickly grasped her hand, his face set in a ruby red, and they shook on their promise. Sakura dropped his hand after a moment, and looked over at the house, while Naruto looked up towards the sky. It was a mixture of orange and red, and faint grey. _'The sky is very pretty during sunset.'_

"There's something else, Naruto." He turned towards her, to see that she was still looking straight ahead, so he couldn't see her face. It was almost like Sakura was trying to hide her face from him. "You remember when I hinted that Hinata might like you? I was thinking I didn't ask if you liked her did I?" Naruto's eyes widened at the question, and his heart raced. He could feel his cheeks flooding again with heat.

He turned his face away from the pink-haired girl and looked over at the neighboring house. He wasn't sure how to answer, or if he even wanted to. _'There's no way I can have this conversation with Sakura-chan!'_ Sakura wasn't looking away from him anymore at this point and he could feel her eyes trying to read him. He forced himself to not look back at her, but instead to continue to observe the neighborhood around them.

He didn't take in to count, what his position would look like to Sakura though, so naturally she got the wrong assumption completely. "So you don't? I almost feel sorry for her…" Naruto was too stone-shocked to correct her, and instead looked back up to the sky, hoping that whatever god there was to save him from this awkward moment. After several more minutes of silence, the uncomfortable atmosphere seemed to disappear around them.

Sakura stood up from her seat on the ground, and looked down at him. "Come on, let's go back inside. Maybe Sasuke-kun is back!" He sighed at the last comment, hopefully Sasuke decided to stay out all night instead of coming back. He briefly wondered if Sasuke even knew where the house was. Naruto followed Sakura back inside, this time though they took the backdoor.

As they made their way to their room, they were met halfway by Hinata and Sasuke. They were standing fairly close in the cramped hallway; Naruto didn't like how close Sasuke was to Hinata at all. He had to reason out that the hallway was very small, and he was being unreasonable. He made a nod of greeting at Hinata, only to see that she wouldn't look at him. Naruto frowned, feeling a ping in his heart, _'did I do something? She can't still be mad at me? No… she was fine with me at the training area…'_

"Team Seven, follow me into our room won't you? I should fill you in on the mission now, with us all being here." Kakashi said, seeming to appear out of nowhere. They obeyed him and entering their room, while Hinata entered the room next door. She still wasn't sparing Naruto a glance.

Naruto try to shake off his negative feelings, trying to remember that he was on a mission, and didn't have time to be all over the place. The room that his team had entered was not unlike the room next door. The only difference that was really noticeable was that the bags were different. He and Sasuke both placed their bags next to Kakashi and Sakura's. He figured he would set out his bedroll later. _'It will be cramped sleeping in here…'_ He tried to not be overly upset about it though, these people were poor and still trying to be great hosts.

He settled himself against the north wall, opposite of Sasuke who was leaning against the south wall. It wasn't very far from the other boy, but Naruto was stubborn, he was into much of a foul mood to put up with the other boy, being to close would definitely set him off. Sakura had to decide to sit right next to Sasuke along the south wall, while Kakashi placed himself in the middle of it all by the east wall.

"First thing we should start detailing out is how many people we will be up against. You all know, that Momochi Zabuza is a Rank-A missing-nin, and while Kurenai and her team had seen the man be 'killed' by a hunter-nin, we are fairly certain that the man is still alive. Therefore we can be certain that we are up against at least two enemy shinobi and several thugs hired by Gatō. Kurenai and I have decided that we would slip the teams into two. Naruto and Sasuke you will go with me and Hinata, after training, every day to guard Tazuna-san, while he works on the bridge. While Sakura, you will stay here with Kurenai, Kiba and Shino."

"What? Why can't I go with you guys? Aren't we a team?"

"While yes we are a team, we still need work with both teams' skills. Team Eight is really good with scouting and observing their surroundings. Hinata's Byakugan will be very useful against Zabuza's mist abilities, since her eyes can see chakra, while Kiba's sense of smell and Shino's bugs will be good to guard Tazuna-san family."

"How did you decide that I would have to stay behind then?"

"We drew names." Kakashi said cheerfully. "Now, Sakura, go ahead and talk to Kurenai about what your role will be here." Sakura grumbled at the poor reasoning, and walked out of the room. Kakashi refocused on the boys of the team. "Let's continue on what we know about the two we are going up against. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of information on the hunter-nin, just that he is highly skilled in the usage of senbon needles. However we do have quite a bit of Intel on Zabuza. Now listen carefully…"

Naruto was lying against his bedroll, pondering everything that had happened in just two short days, and grimaced at how fast things seemed to go. It felt as if his emotions had hitched a ride on a never-ending rollercoaster. The feelings didn't seem to settle, even while trying to rest. His teammates were asleep nearby, or at least they appeared to be asleep. Neither of them were very far from him, he could almost feel Sasuke's breath on his skin, they were all so close.

He felt goosebumps from the closeness of his teammates, he hated how cramped they were. _'It's better to get used to being this close though…'_ He forcing himself to sleep on his back, since sleeping on his sides seemed to make him even more unbearably close to Sasuke or Kakashi. Then only a few steps away, were Kiba and Shino. Feeling very uncomfortable, he started to daydream, hoping against hope that he would forget how close he was to other people. At least he wasn't sleeping with the girls, he would never sleep then. _'Need to be well-rested, so that I will be useful…'_ Naruto paused at that thought.

 _'Hopefully Hinata isn't so anger at me, she won't train me…'_ He frowned at his thinking, _'Hinata would never be so petty.'_ Realizing that he had gotten off track, he forced his wayward thoughts away, and focused on making himself sleep. Hinata was a problem for the morning. After several minutes, Naruto's breath settled and he had entered a light restless doze, dreaming of several realities, some deeply unpleasant.

*thump*

Naruto shot up from his covering, and looked around the room, trying to identify the noise. As he looked around, he saw that no one else seemed to have awakened from the noise. Had he imagined it? Naruto looked over to see that Kakashi was in fact not in his bedroll. What Naruto thought was his sensei was just the man's bag, which had fallen under the covers. He felt a strange sense of curiosity, and gently stepped out the room, trying to not wake his still slumbering comrades.

*thump*

Listening closely to the noise, Naruto figured that it was coming from outside. _'What's going on?'_ He quietly made his way towards the backdoor, again being mindful of the other residents of the household. He stopped when he got outside, and blinked. He had expected to see his sensei doing something odd. Instead he saw Hinata sitting against the tree that he and Sakura had obtained several hours prior. _'Where the hell did Kakashi-sensei go?'_

*thump*

Naruto jumped slightly at the noise, and looked to see that it was coming from his friend. She was every so often hitting the back of her head against the tree. _'What's wrong with her?'_ He pondered, quickly forgetting about his missing sensei. He padded his way over to Hinata.

"Oh did I wake you? I forget how freakish your hearing is…" He prevented a creeping redness from covering his face, and sat down next to her. Hinata didn't look over at him, clearly still irritated. Naruto bit his lip and started to play with the grass around them, taking several seconds to figure out his emotions.

"I-I am sorry for not telling you that I-I needed help in my chakra control." Hinata looked at him for a second, and then looked back at the house.

"You think I am still upset about that? Look, I am not happy about you keeping things from me, but we are friends right? So shouldn't friends tell one another when they are struggling? How am I supposed to help when I don't know things?" She didn't look at him when she said this, and it made him highly uncomfortable. Naruto couldn't remember a time when he felt this awkward around Hinata. "But I forgive you this time okay? We better go to bed we have training really early. Night," She then left him by himself in the small backyard.

He ran the words she had spoken in his head a few times, and couldn't figure out what sounded wrong in them. He tugged out some grass blades, unclutching his fist afterwards to let the blades fly away in the breeze. Watching the grass tumble in the wind, he made a snap decision to start training now. If he couldn't find out what was wrong with Hinata, he could at least make himself useful, for there was no way he was going to be able to sleeping now.

-Five Days Later-

Naruto stood next to Sasuke and Hinata while they waited for Tazuna to get ready to set out towards the bridge. Kakashi was a few feet ahead of them, also waiting for the man. Sakura was leaning against the house, watching them. She had small pout on her face, still upset that she had been chosen to stay behind. Naruto didn't feel bad though, it was good thing they separated the two girls. They're relations hadn't improved over the four days they had been training. Naruto let a small smile cover his face, at least a few good things had happened while training. Sakura and Sasuke both got hang of climbing a tree with just their feet. Admittedly Sakura got it in one try, while it took Sasuke the entire four days to get it down.

After learning that he was the only one to not be able to climb the tree with his feet, Sasuke had put his all in getting the skill down. Naruto smirked, knowing he could have told Sasuke that it was likely because he had more chakra than Sakura and Hinata therefore it was harder for Sasuke to control his chakra. Also adding that, Naruto, himself, had learned the skill years ago. But Naruto didn't feel kind enough to indulge him; it was good for Sasuke to realize he wasn't better than everyone else.

Another good thing to happen was that Naruto had learned to walk on water. It had taken him awhile, but it had helped that he had two teachers to teach him. Sakura, had gotten the trick down in just two days, and decided she would help both the boys in mastering their respective goals. Of course, Hinata had helped all of them from the get-go. _'Hehe… and Sasuke is still a skill behind the rest of us,'_ Naruto thought smugly. But then he frowned, recalling that Hinata was still not really looking at him.

Finally after several minutes of waiting, Tazuna came out of the house and they all set out. They had done the same routine as every other day, following in a protective stance, with Hinata in front of Tazuna, Naruto and Sasuke on the old man's sides, and Kakashi behind him. When they got to the bridge, they pretty much stayed in that same format, but they would spread out more, to give the builders room to work.

Naruto wasn't really expecting much to happen today, like he had the day before. He had figured that the missing-nin and hunter-nin would have attacked yesterday, as soon as the missing-nin had recovered. This hadn't been the case, and Naruto was now slightly confused on when the other ninjas planned to attack Tazuna. _'Maybe they noticed the switch in teams, and now are observing us?'_ Naruto frowned; Hinata would have noticed someone observing them pretty easily with her eyes. So how would the enemy ninjas know that they had switch teams? Naruto cleared his thoughts he was likely just overthinking things. He went back to observing the workers around him, feeling quite bored. _'Protecting people is rather boring…'_ He fought the urge to yawn; he knew that wouldn't go over well at all.

He stood up straight when he saw movement from Hinata with the corner of his eye, and leaped to the right of Tazuna, taking out a kunai from his weapon pouch, with Sasuke and Hinata also covering the man from their own sides. Mist was now covering the bridge, making it hard to see around him. He knew Hinata could see everything fairly well with her blood limit, and he felt jealous of her. Naruto couldn't see Kakashi at all with how thick the mist was around him.

Clashing of weapons sounded from the front, telling him quickly where the man was. _'He's fighting one of the ninjas! It must be Zabuza!'_ As his eyes sort of adjusted to the mist around him, Naruto let out a small gasp. All around him, workers laid on the bridge, with needles sticking out of their necks. Seeing that none of their bodies were moving at all, Naruto made a quick assumption that they were all dead. Naruto couldn't help the terror that seized his body.

Sasuke moved quickly, blocking the senbon needles from hitting Naruto. Sasuke used his kunai to start fighting the newcomer. It was a boy about their age, whose entire face was covered by a hunter-nin mask. Both boys seemed to moving incredibly fast, Naruto trembled as he continued to watch the hunter-nin and Sasuke. While Naruto could tell that Sasuke was pretty confident that he could take the hunter-nin, something didn't quite sit right. He wanted to be able to step in when everything went to hell for his teammate, but he couldn't seem to pry his feet from their spot. _'This is the worse time to get the jitters! Move body, MOVE!'_

Sasuke and the hunter-nin seemed to hit a standstill, Naruto couldn't make out what they were saying, but Sasuke looked to be in trouble. The hunter-nin had used a weird jutsu, with only one hand! Naruto blinked in surprise again as the water around the two ninjas, formed into several needles aiming right for Sasuke. Still Naruto couldn't move, luckily though Sasuke was taking their training into mind was able to get the upper hand in the end. Finally Sasuke was pushing the hunter-nin back quite easily. Naruto felt himself slightly relax; it looked like Sasuke had the hang of things.

Naruto try to see if he could see how his sensei was doing with the Rank-A missing-nin, but he still couldn't make anything out in the heavy mist. All he could hear was the clashing of weapons from where his sensei had been earlier. The sound comforted Naruto a bit, reassuring him that his sensei was holding his own against the missing-nin. Naruto looked back at Sasuke and the hunter-nin when he heard his teammate give out a gasp.

He let out his own gasp when he saw several mirrors now surrounding Sasuke. The other ninja had seemed to have disappeared. Naruto frowned in confusion, wondering what the hell was going on. Then suddenly Sasuke was hit several times by senbon needles. _'Sasuke!'_ Naruto's eyes widened and he again try to move so that he could help his teammate.

"Your friend seems to be in trouble!" The old man exclaimed. Naruto ignored him, quickly assessing that the hunter-nin had missed all Sasuke's vital points. Naruto still wished to join in the fighting, but his legs still wouldn't pull him forward. _'This is bad!'_ Naruto watched as Sasuke has started to form seals, determined. _'G-Good, he looks like he has a plan…'_ Naruto stared amazed when Sasuke breathed out fire at the ice mirrors, and then was equally disappointed when it didn't affect the ice mirrors at all. Instead Sasuke was again hit by senbon needles from all sides, knocking Sasuke to the ground.

Before the hunter-nin could hit Sasuke again, the needles were blocked… by Hinata! Naruto blinked, she had moved so fast, he had barely seen her. "Wow kid, even that girl has more balls than you." Naruto winced inwardly at the old man's comment, he wasn't wrong. Naruto was coward. _'But now it would be foolish for me to join in, I can't leave Tazuna-san by himself!'_ Naruto tightened his hold on his kunai and widened his stance, _'I won't be useless anymore during this battle! I'll protect Tazuna-san!'_

He continued to keep an eye on the battle in front of him though, Sasuke had gotten back up and both he and Hinata seemed to be chatting. "What? I just saved you from getting killed!" He could hear Hinata yell, Naruto bit his lip, now wasn't the time for them to be fighting among themselves. He was proven right, as the hunter-nin hit both Genin with his senbon needles. Naruto couldn't help the small growl that vibrated through his chest. Tazuna behind him jumped slightly at the noise but otherwise stayed behind the young ninja.

Naruto pushed down his temper, his team was fine; again the hunter-nin had missed all vital points. Naruto frowned at that though, why was the hunter-nin missing? Was he just screwing with the two Genin? Naruto felt that, that would be a mistake on the hunter-nin part Sasuke and Hinata were surely going to work out a strategy against the ninja. He felt confidence fill his veins, if the hunter-nin wasn't being serious, then his team would surely win.

Hinata and Sasuke both looked serious now. Clearly being hit by the needles, made them focus again. Therefore when the hunter-nin again started to shot needles, Hinata was able to avoid pretty much all of them, while again Sasuke was hit by them. Sasuke fell to his knees, slightly shocked. He wasn't the only one though the hunter-nin had stopped also. This made it so Naruto was able to see him finally, _'he in the mirror! What the hell?'_

The hesitation on the hunter-nin's part was a mistake. Hinata immediately leaped forward and hit the mirror. She was slip second to late though, and the hunter-nin got away again. Naruto gasped in shock, when the mirror cracked a little. _'She must be using gentle fist! She got him! That hunter-nin doesn't stand a chance, if she can break the mirrors!'_

Hinata also came to that conclusion and started to rapid hit the mirrors around her, with her jutsu. The hunter-nin reacted to what Hinata was doing, and aimed for Sasuke, this time actually taking things seriously. Some of the senbon needles hit vital points in Sasuke's legs and arms, causing him to fall over again, but this time he couldn't get back up. Naruto didn't have to be close, to know that the boy had cursed. Hinata reacted, and again covered Sasuke.

She was able to deflect the rest of needles from hitting her fallen comrade. Naruto bit his lip, this wasn't good. Hinata wouldn't be able to break the mirrors and protect Sasuke from getting hurt! Naruto's paralysis seemed to vanish, and he almost started to make his way over to the other two. Then he stopped, and looked behind him at Tazuna. _'I can't just leave Tazuna-san! Shit, shit, shit!'_ He looked back over at Hinata, he had to help her, but he wasn't sure how he could without leaving Tazuna to a terrible faith.

Hinata was able to deflect another attack of needles from hitting Sasuke, but she couldn't prevent the ones that hit her. Luckily, again all the needles missed vital points. _'Kill him!'_ Naruto closed his clear blue eyes at the impure thought, considering. _'What no! I can't kill someone! I can't leave Tazuna-san!'_ He took a deep breath to settle himself. _'Yes you can! Kill, kill, kill!'_ Naruto reopened his eyes; they were now deep shade of violet. _'I-I can't…'_ His eyes slowly turned to a lighter shade of purplish-blue.

Hinata seemed to be doing okay without his help, she again deflected needles from hitting Sasuke, and this time instead of being hit with rest of the needles, she grabbed them. Then with barely a second later, she tossed the needles right back at the mirrors around her. The needles smashed into the mirrors, she had hit filled the needles with her own chakra. Naruto's cerulean eyes watched in amazement when several mirrors shattered. _'Awesome! She has this!'_ Still Hinata and Sasuke were surrounded by eight mirrors. Naruto wasn't worried though, Hinata would break the last ones soon enough.

The hunter-nin didn't stop to recover his broken mirrors; in fact it seemed that he moved faster now that there was less mirrors. He was moving so fast that he was able to throw one round of senbon needles then right after, he threw another round in rapid session. Hinata was able to block the first round of them, but because she was so focused on the first round she had missed the second round.

Several of them plugged into her arms and legs, a few of them nudged themselves into her neck. She didn't move after that for several minutes. Naruto frowned in confused at that, as she simply just stood there, while the hunter-nin just watched. _'What's going on?'_ He took a hesitant step forward, wondering if he should join the battle now.

Hinata fell forward, landing harshly against the hard cold ground. Naruto didn't take anything else in as he watched his friend die in front of him. He didn't see that Sasuke had fallen unconscious, nor that the mist had cleared a bit and Kakashi was trying his best to make his way over to them.

Naruto's blue eyes were completely taken over this time, filled with a ruby red. His nails became so sharp that they were like knifes. _'Kill, kill, kill!'_ Naruto's body was covered in a red hue of chakra that seemed to be bubbling at his backside, slowly growing outward. _'He took what was ours! KILL HIM!'_

Naruto fell to all fours and in blur was in the middle of the mirrors. Tazuna gasped at the sight when the bubbling stopped to completely form a red tail. The old man was afraid, but at the same curious at this new jutsu that Naruto seemed to be using. He had never heard of it, and because of this, he stood his ground watching the scene unfold in front of him.

Further away, Kakashi cursed, finally deciding to lift his Konoha forehead protector. He needed to end the battle quickly, before Naruto went to out of control. In front of Kakashi, was a tall pale man, with short spiky black hair, and dressed in all black. The man had bandages wrapped over his mouth, and on top of his head he wore a forehead protector from the Hidden Mist Village, but there was a huge dash over the Mist Village's symbol. For the man was the missing-nin, Zabuza.

Zabuza seemed to be surprised when Kakashi uncovered his right eye, which was red and had three circle-like shapes around the pupil. "Ha, so you have a Sharingan? Ha, ha you must be Copy Cat Ninja, Kakashi." Zabuza only showed a second of concern for his young charge, for the blonde brat was sending off strong killer intent, but then continued to engage Kakashi in battle. The hunter-nin was only a tool, and nothing more.

He was not afraid of the Sharingan he knew its powers and was prepared for anything. Or at least he was, until Kakashi copied him completely when he attempted to use any jutsu. Zabuza frowned, trying to come up with a way to prevent Kakashi from reading his mind.

From the left of them, they heard a deep growl, and both of them looked over to see that Naruto had destroyed all of the hunter-nin's mirrors and was now advancing quickly against the boy. The hunter-nin was barely able to block the strikes from Naruto, and he was slowly running out of chakra. Zabuza decided to help out and sent out several star shuriken towards the blonde brat. They didn't hit, Kakashi had deflected them before they even made it close to their target.

Zabuza grunted, and quickly forgot about his tool, if the boy couldn't take down that weak blonde haired brat, then the hunter-nin was useless to him. He immediately refocused on his battle against the Copy Cat. His mind now more settled, than it had been before. Zabuza lifted his huge broadsword, called a Zanbato. He hide himself among the mist he had made earlier, making it even heavier than before, watching as Kakashi looked all around for him. Grinning smugly, Zabuza moved quickly, swinging the Zanbato down upon the other ninja.

Kakashi vapored into a huge water splash. Zabuza cursed, when he realized that he had killed a water clone. Kakashi had copied him again. Zabuza wasn't fast enough to dodge an attack from a kunai. He grunted, and again cloaked himself in the heavy mist around them. Zabuza revised his plans and moved silently in the mist, towards his actual target. He didn't get far though, for some reason Kakashi was able to find him in the mist.

The man again attacked him, this time it was critical. Kakashi had hit Zabuza with a weird lightening attack, which Zabuza was sure would have killed him, if he hadn't been moving. Instead it hit him partially on his side, causing him to spill a great amount of blood. The wound caused Zabuza to lose focus on the mist around them, and it started to slowly clear around the bridge.

With the mist finally clearing enough, the hunter-nin and Naruto were finally able to see Kakashi and Zabuza more clearly. Naruto though was far too gone, to notice anything really, and continue to attack the hunter-nin. On the other hand, the hunter-nin was slightly taken off track from the mist suddenly clearing. Filled with worry, the boy looked over to see his teammate, bleeding rapidly.

The hunter-nin filled with tension decided he was going to help his comrade out. Naruto didn't let him though, instead the ruby eyed Genin lashed out. His claws ripped the hunter-nin's right arm right off, causing it to spray plasma everywhere. The arm flew several feet away from them, and the hunter-nin gasped in shock. He quickly attempted to turn to protect himself from the crazed Naruto.

Naruto reacted at the same time, plugging his claw right through the chest of the hunter-nin. The hunter-nin gasped again, but for whole another reason this time. "N-No!" He stuttered weakly, trying to detach himself from Naruto's arm. As he struggled, his mask slipped and fell to the ground. The mask hit the ground so hard, it broke in two. The hunter-nin stared at the broken mask for several seconds in a daze.

He coughed violently, giving up his struggle to get free. Thick blood dripped from the side of his mouth, and he spoke with a broken heart. "It looks like your will to protect your precious one, was better than mine, Naruto-kun…" Naruto's red eyes widened at the sight of the hunter-nin's face. _'H-He's the boy from before! OH MY…!'_ He pulled his arm out of the other boy, and watched with tears as the other boy fell to the ground.

Naruto closed his eyes from the sight, _'no, no, no! I didn't… I DIDN'T!'_ He reopened his now light violet eyes to see his bloody arm, and the very still form of his friend from before. _'I did… I killed him… I am a murderer!'_

1 I screwed up the ranking last chapter. I am an idiot! I'll fix it. I have been busy so I haven't gotten around to uploading my fixup jobs. I also made a line for showing scene changes, instead of a dash. Hopefully those show up this time!

AN: I thought I share, that I update where I am on chapters on my Tumblr blog, thatsadot. If you visit my page, and just click on the link, Dot Writes, you will see my updates. If I know you guys are looking at that tag, I'll update it more. Sorry I took forever to update this chapter, and I hope you guys enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

Twisted C4

Cerulean eyes glazed over, staring intently upon the hunter-nin, watching as the other boy's body slowly lost the heat that it once held. Naruto flinched, closing his eyes, his shattered mind trying to pick up the pieces of the sight before him. Swallowing his fear, he forced himself to register his surroundings. He gasped in shock when he saw a small shape at the edge of the bridge. There against the gate of the bridge, sat the shivered arm of the hunter-nin, Naruto groaned. He fell to his knees, violently letting out the contents of his stomach.

' _I-I did that. I killed him…'_ Naruto's heart skipped a beat as another voice spoke in his mind.

' _No brat. We killed him. Wasn't it gorgeous? Feeling the life bleed out of the one who killed what was ours?!'_ Naruto clenched his teeth.

' _No! Shu-Shu-'_

' _Don't deny what we are brat! We are monsters!'_

' _Shut up! I am not a m-monster! I am nothing like you!'_

' _Oh? And who killed that other boy?'_

Naruto bit his lip. _'T-That wasn't me, that couldn't have been me! It was you! You made me kill him!'_

' _Ha, ha, ha! And who do you think let me out to kill? You did! You wanted me to kill him!'_ Naruto let go of his lip, tasting copper on his tongue _. 'While you might not be the murderer brat, but you are definitely tainted. Sooner or later, you won't even need my help killing others.'_ The demon fox slipped out of his mind after that, causing Naruto to let out a relieved sigh.

"N-Naruto?" A weak voice peeped from behind him. Naruto turned instantly, tensing, as he saw Hinata pushing herself from the ground. Naruto's blood started to boil and he heard constant ringing in his ears, with a jolt, he caught Hinata before she tumbled back down. "Thank you." She breathed out, still groggy from being put in a death like state. He acknowledged her thanks with a nod, placing one of her arms around his shoulders.

"You're okay."

"Yea. The imposter must've used the same technique on us that he used on Zabuza before." Naruto looked around to see, that it wasn't just Hinata who had wakened, but also several of the bridge workers were now waking up. He sent a quick glance over to Sasuke, to see that the other boy still wasn't awake. Naruto noticed some blood leaking out of his forehead protector; clearly Sasuke was going to be out for a while.

Naruto took an unsettled breath _, 'We killed him yet he killed no one here.'_ He made his hands into fists. _'Never again will I let the fox take over like that. I won't be a murderer! I am not a monster!'_

"Well, well, what do we have here?" A voice spoke causing Naruto to revert to the current reality. Standing before them, was a short middle aged man, with wild wavy brown hair and a small pair of black glasses covering his eyes. The man wore a black suit, with a green undershirt and purple tie. Behind the man were several thugs, armed with various weapons. Naruto fleetingly thought that the man had peculiar fashion sense, before quickly placing who the short man was.

"Gatō, what are you doing here?" Zabuza grunted, further down from the other side of Naruto and Hinata. The man was bleeding profoundly from his side, yet seemed to at the same time be in a standstill with Kakashi. Naruto blinked in amazement at the feat, Zabuza clearly had a high tolerance for pain.

"I came here to see if you were getting the job done. Instead I see that, you and that useless brat can't even take care of a couple of weak ninjas from Konoha! Therefore, I do not believe I will be paying you."

"Don't say that! He wasn't useless; he died protecting someone he loved! He might have been my enemy, but he still deserves respect!"

Gatō barked out a laugh at Naruto, his thugs following suit. "Respect? He didn't even kill any of you! What respect should I have for such a useless piece of trash?" Naruto attempted to take a step forward, to give Gatō a rightly deserved punch in the face. He didn't make it far though; he was stop from the weight on his shoulders. Naruto blinked, remembering that Hinata was still injured.

Gatō moved from his position in front of the thugs, walking towards the corpse of the hunter-nin. The man promptly started to kick the boy several times. "Useless piece of shit, breaking my arm!" He said in-between kicks. Naruto shifted Hinata to Tazuna, rushing at the man, tackling him to the ground. Gatō grunted as his head made impact with the ground. Naruto smashed his fist into the older man's face several times, breaking his nose and cracking his bottom lip.

Gatō's face was soon unrecognizable, tripping blood all over the all place. The man had stopped struggling finally, fading away into unconsciousness. Naruto let out several ragged breaths, his vision finally clearing of rage. Finally, he noticed that more people had come to the bridge. He reached for his pouch on his hip, preparing for a fight.

He paused when he recognized Sakura, and the rest of Team Eight standing among the newcomers. These newcomers were the villagers, and with them were Inari and his mother. They had all come to fight alongside them. Naruto stood up from Gatō, taking in the scene. The villagers were armed, and ready to fight against Gatō and his men. _'Good, they need to learn to stand up for themselves.'_ He closed his pouch, taking in the situation.

Gatō's men seemed to have realized that they didn't stand a chance against several ninjas and the villagers, and had surrendered to them. Naruto looked around to see if Zabuza had also surrendered; the man had been injured pretty badly after all. Instead, Zabuza was gone from the bridge, and not only that, but the hunter-nin's body was gone as well. Naruto blinked, confused. _'Wasn't Kakashi holding Zabuza off? Why didn't I see him take off with the body? Even the arm is gone!'_ Naruto looked to see that Kakashi wasn't concerned, and frowned. He was extremely baffled.

Kurenai came up from behind him, bending down to pick up Gatō, clearly planning to take the man into custody. Kiba was with her, and he let out a whistle. "Wow, you really did a number on the guy." Naruto didn't make a comment back; the man earned every hit and more. Several others also came over to them. Hinata was directly behind Tazuna, finally walking by herself. Sakura was following Sasuke, who was finally wake.

Kakashi reached him first though, with a serious expression. "We are going to have to talk later." Naruto nodded, and the man turned from him, to pick up a conversation with Kurenai. "Shall we get him and his crew ready for transport to Konoha?"

"Actually, I have a better idea."

"Oh?"

"Hey brat." Naruto tuned out his sensei and Kurenai to face Tazuna, directly behind him was the rest of Team Seven and Eight. Naruto could see that the villagers all around them were tying up Gatō's crew. "I have to thank you, kid and of course your team. You guys really saved my life back there. So thank you." Naruto didn't respond he didn't feel like a hero. _'Does killing another human really make one a hero? Even so, I didn't kill anyone, the stupid fox did…'_

"There's something else though kid. I have to thank you, for whatever you said to Inari." Naruto frowned, not understanding. Tazuna smiled seeming to know what Naruto was confused about. "Do you know why the villagers are here right now? They are here because Inari convinced them to be and the only reason he did this was because he was done being sorry for himself. I am not sure what you said, but it really stuck with Inari."

Tazuna's explanation didn't clear up the confusion for Naruto; instead it only made him more confounded. Naruto walked over to Inari, who was helping his mother give first aid to the injured. "H-Hey brat, I wasn't done talking to you!"

"Excuse me." Naruto spoke quietly to Inari's back. Inari was young and therefore had great hearing, for he was able to hear Naruto easily. Inari turned his attention from the injured bridge worker, preparing a questioning eyebrow for whoever had interrupted him.

"Naruto?" The younger boy looked confused as to why the older boy was talking to him. Naruto paused blushing, wondering himself what he even wanted to ask the kid, Inari seemed to know before him though. "You're wondering why I gathered the villagers aren't you, even though I kept telling everyone it's pointless to fight…" To Naruto's surprise, Inari's cheeks turned rosy red like his own. "After what you said, I try to erase the memory, thinking you were just fool like my father you know? But afterwards it kept popping up every time I saw you, reminding how even though you were up against impossible odds, you still trained to fight those odds. I also remember that you ran all the way here, all by yourself just to protect what was important to you. It reminded me of my father. He was a hero, who Gatō had killed…" Inari choked up bit at the mention of his father death.

"My father always said that he would protect me and my mom and this village with his own two arms, because we were precious to him. At first this made me anger and I resented you. But… then as I kept watching you guys, I realized I wanted to be like you, and protect what was important to me with my own strength just like my father and you. So after we were attacked at home, I knew that grandpa was in trouble, and this village's hope was going to die. So I had to do something, you know?" Inari paused, taking a breath. "So thank you, for returning courage to my village, Naruto."

Naruto could feel the heat on his cheeks spread all over his face. He didn't deserve these people's thanks, he didn't do anything. "And because of that, Naruto, I have landed on a name for this bridge." Tazuna spoke, joining them, clasping a hand on his grandson's shoulder. "I have to decide to name the bridge, The Great Naruto Bridge. The name will serve to remind everyone to stand up and protect what's important to them." The old man smiled at the name, thinking the name was fitting.

Naruto couldn't help but disagree with the idea. He steadied a breath and spoke as clearly as he could. "No, don't name it that."

"What?" Tazuna spoke, clearly insulted that Naruto refuted his idea. Naruto couldn't help but pause at the anger in the old man's voice, but he only paused for a second. Naruto didn't want his name on a bridge where he murdered someone else because he was a coward. Thinking quickly, he spoke again, this time with a small quiver, that was barely noticeable.

"I think it be better to name it after someone who everyone in this village valued as a hero. While I might have encouraged Inari-san to not feel sorry for himself, I did not give him his courage. He had that way before I meet him, I only reminded Inari-san of this trait. He brought back courage to this village, not me."  
"Grandpa can't name it after me!" Inari shouted in anger getting in Naruto's face, "I don't deserve it! You do!" The shout gained the attention of several people around them; none of the three took notice though. Naruto forced himself not to flinch at the sudden raise in volume from Inari.

Naruto pushed down the anger that was rising from being yelled at and instead spoke as calmly as he could back to the younger boy. "You misunderstood me. Someone else filled this village with hope and courage, while I might have reminded you of these traits and you reminded the village. We did not give this to anyone, your father did. He was a hero yes? One can only get this title by bring these traits to people around them. Therefore, I think that you should name this bridge after your father, Inari-san. Honor the man who died protecting his village and family with his own two arms."

Inari blinked in surprise, not expecting that reply. "A-After my father?" Inari hiccupped tears spilling from his dark eyes. Naruto frowned, unsure how to react to the tears, _'did I screw up?'_

"The Great Kaiza Bridge, what a remarkable idea!" Inari nodded, agreeing with his grandpa, as he wiped his eyes. "Still, I feel as if we should do more to say thanks for everything you and your village have done for us."

"There's no need, we were only doing our job. Now that the immediate threat has been taken care of, how much longer do you think it will take for you to complete this bridge, Tazuna-san?"

Tazuna did a quick scan of the bridge, responding to Kakashi. "Seeing how there is more damage done to the bridge, it will likely be a few more days until it's fully finished." Kakashi nodded.

"With Gatō out of the way, do you believe you are still in grave danger?"

"No. I do not believe so."

"Then, we will lower the guard detail. Kurenai and her team will be heading back to Konoha, since she still injured. Not to worry though, my team will stay here to continue to stay guard, until you are finished with the bridge."

"Will Gatō and his crew go with Team Eight?"

"Just Gatō, we will let you and your village decide what you want to do with the others. If that will be alright with you?"

Tazuna smiled at the opportunity, "That will be just fine."

Naruto didn't get to hear the rest of the conversation, he was pulled away instead. Hinata pulled him to the end of the bridge, turning to face him. Naruto looked around to see that they were now fairly far from the others.

"Listen, I was out for the entire battle between you and that Haku guy. So can you fill me in? What happened?" Naruto blinked back at Hinata, in confusion.

"Wh-Who?"

"The hunter-nin, who you killed! Are you alright? What happened? How did you kill him? I saw he lost an arm too!"

"I-I really should be asking you if-f you are alright…" Naruto hesitantly brushed one of his hand against Hinata's hand. "And how do you know his name? I didn't know his name…"

"All I really did was got knocked out, nothing to major. The hunter-nin really tried to avoid hurting us really bad. And Kakashi-sensei said the name earlier, the missing-nin likely said it to him. But enough of that, let's stay on topic it." Hinata grabbed his hand and yanked forcing him to face her, preventing people from seeing his face. "What happened?"

"W-What do you think!? I-I killed him!" Naruto's bottom lip trembled as he spoke, his eyes becoming glassy. His voice went quieter, "I am a monster…"

"No you are not. You did what you should have, and I know that sounds horrifying. But listen okay?" Hinata slipped her hand into his, squeezing it gently. "What you did was a necessary evil. You had to killed Haku, if you hadn't he would have killed Tazuna-san. While he might have left the rest of us alive, he would've had to kill Tazuna-san. Not only that, but you thought he killed me and Sasuke. Anyone in your position would have been filled with rage."

"He was just protecting someone precious to him! Zabuza was the most important person to Haku-kun! He only wanted to protect him…"

"And to do that, he would've had to kill Tazuna-san. What if their job wasn't to kill Tazuna-san, but it was to kill Sakura?" Naruto bit his lip, understanding Hinata's point. "We are soldiers, tools who are made to protect our village and everyone in it. If Haku had lived, at some point, we would've crossed his path again and who knows what his task would've been then? We can't take our feelings into the battlefield, Naruto-kun. Sometimes we will have to kill; this doesn't make us monsters or murderers. It makes us protectors of the future of our village." Hinata dropped his hand, raising it instead to his face. "I am sorry that you had to go through this, Naruto-kun."

"I-I understand… it just I don't want to kill anyone. I don't want to be emotionless. I liked Haku, he understood a part of me, and he was intelligent. He could have been someone, and I ended that. I-I spoke with him before this, and I really do think we could've been friends."

Hinata stepped forward grasping him in her arms, as tears flowed down from his cerulean eyes. "I am sorry, Naruto-kun." Naruto knew then, that Hinata wouldn't understand his suffering until she experienced it herself. _'And she will… one day. I don't want that either, why do we have to kill? Why can't it be peaceful? I want it to change, so that we aren't always in constant battles.'_ Naruto fingered a forgotten paper in his black jean pocket, _'maybe one day…'_ He stood back from Hinata's embrace, quickly rubbing his eyes.

"Thank you, Hinata." She nodded, and glanced behind him when her sensei called to her to hurry up.

"I got to get going, my team is heading back to Konoha today. We want to get Gatō in a jail cell as soon as possible. I'll see you in a week okay?" She gave him a soft smile filled with sadness, grabbing his hand and giving it another squeeze, before pulling away. He watched her follow Team Eight back to the house. The villagers had also started to leave, with Gatō's crew with them. A few of the villagers had stayed behind though, helping the uninjured workers finish the bridge. Naruto sighed, and walked back to Kakashi, so that he could learn about the new format to guard Tazuna.

~One Week and Half Later~

Naruto leaned against the railing of the main bridge in Konoha, in his hand; he held a piece of paper. Upon this piece of paper was written several books. Some dealt with how to identify herbs, others talk about which herbs were useful for medical, eating, and whatever else. Haku really went all out in books he thought Naruto should read. Before the death of Haku, Naruto wasn't completely certain that he wanted to learn about herbs. After his death though, Naruto wanted to honor Haku, therefore he would learn everything he could about herbs.

Problem was that Naruto struggled a bit in reading. He wasn't horrible at it; he had to read for the academy, and needed to be able to read scrolls. The books that Haku had recommended though weren't as easy reading as what he was required to read. A lot of the words were bigger than he was used to, and some of the theories in the books were hard to comprehend. He wasn't about to give up, he bought a directory; he also planned to buy more books to help explain theories that he didn't understand. Feeling resolved he stuffed the piece of paper back in his pocket, to continue waiting for his constantly tardy sensei.

Today was the day that the rest of his team got the bad news, Naruto grimaced. He had prepared for this moment; Sakura and Sasuke were not going to be happy. After coming back from the Land of Waves, Naruto had been rushed to the Hokage's office. There he was retold of his punishment and then explained why they had landed on his punishment as a whole, which his sensei had left out before. The Third Hokage had also given him another dressing down about the duties of ninja.

Naruto let out a quiet puff of air, looking at his team. Before the punishment had been explained, Naruto thought it was unfair to them, but afterwards Naruto felt it was necessary punishment for all of them. Even if it was his fault that it was force upon them. Today, Kakashi was informing the other two of the punishment. Naruto hadn't been able to tell them beforehand though, having been forbidden to. The Hokage and Kakashi likely thought it was better they were told by a mentor first.

Sasuke turned his head towards him, likely feeling Naruto's gaze upon them. There wasn't the normal distain in the other boy's eyes. It hadn't been there since the demon fox had killed Haku. Naruto wasn't sure what he had done to gain some of Sasuke's respect, but he wasn't sure he was happy about it. Normally he would be happy about gaining someone's respect, but he hadn't gained the small respect on his own merit, instead it was on the fox's. _'If I have to kill, it really should be my own choice...'_ He had slowly come to terms to what Hinata had said before. She was right that there would be times that they would have to kill, and that, that was just their world. From now on he wouldn't let the fox choose those moments for him, and he would make sure those moments were as rare as possible. He knew that they were taught to leave their emotions behind as ninjas, but he didn't want to.

He didn't want to be like Zabuza who hadn't shown emotion until the end. Naruto felt a small flashback to when they had found the man. The man had slipped away from the battle on the bridge, and with his final strength buried Haku, and then afterwards Zabuza had died upon the grave. Naruto believed that letting some emotions through, made one stronger, and that Haku had been truly strong because of this. Naruto was glad that Haku had been buried by his most precious person in the end. He liked to think that it would give Haku peace, wherever he was after death.

Naruto was startled from his daydreams of the past, when Kakashi suddenly spoke up. _'When the hell did he get here? I need to be more alert.'_ He stood up straight as his sensei jumped right into explaining the punishment.

"As I am sure that everyone is aware that Naruto was punished for his misdeed, but some of us are still unaware of what the punishment details. Today is the day where I will explain this punishment to everyone, for it affects all of us." Naruto could see from the corner of his eye that both his Genin teammates were now looking at him. Kakashi wasn't though; instead he was keeping a constant gaze upon Sasuke and Sakura. Preventing a flinch, Naruto kept his eyes on his sensei. He could tell that the younger half of his team was not happy.

"If you were not aware, in a few days, Konoha will be hosting the Chunin exams. These are hosted twice a year, every six months. For Genins to take part in these exams, they must be first recommended by their sensei to the Hokage. This now brings us to the punishment. While the other six rookies will be taking part in the exams, our team has been booted from the exams this time around."

"How is that fair!? It wasn't mine and Sasuke fault that Naruto ran off!" Sakura cried at the same that Sasuke tsk in anger. Naruto kept his head forward, not daring to look at his teammates; he could feel a blush on his cheeks. He was ashamed he cost them the exam this time.

"It's not just because of Naruto that Team Seven isn't allowed to take the exams. The Hokage would never punish the team as a whole for one person's deeds unless he had good reason. After giving my review of our team, the Hokage and I came to the idea that it would be better for the team to sit out, to further strengthen our teamwork. While you guys seem to understand the need for good teamwork, it was felt that you were all still failing in putting the idea into practice. Therefore to get you guys more use to one another, we will continue doing missions." Kakashi took a pause, letting the disappointment sink further into Sasuke and Sakura. After a moment he continued.

"We already have our first mission after the Land of Waves one. This mission is travel to several villages, hand out flyers to people and inform them of the third exam*. We will set out tomorrow, late in the morning. I will meet you guys back here." With a way to happy of a wave, Kakashi vanished.

Sasuke tsk again in anger, storming off the bridge, as he past he shoved his shoulder into Naruto. Naruto grimaced, promptly grabbing onto the railing, before he fell over it. He looked up from his near fall, intending to say sorry to Sakura, instead he notice that the girl had followed after Sasuke. _'Clearly she wants to comfort him…'_ He had a feeling he wasn't going to enjoy this trip.

* _The general idea of this mission came from another story, called Harbinger by tigerowl, and it is part of a series called Three Mandalas. You guys should read it, if you haven't already._


End file.
